Is my data or encryption at risk now?

No. Today's quantum computers are nowhere near the scale to break real-world RSA or AES. A long-term migration to post-quantum cryptography is nonetheless advised.

How is this different from Shor's algorithm?

Shor targets public-key (asymmetric) ciphers like RSA. This experiment demonstrates period-finding on a symmetric structure like Even-Mansour on real hardware — a different target and scale.

Where can I read the paper?

It is published on HuggingFace Papers (arXiv 2607.18340).

VIDRAFT / Insights / Quantum computing

Quantum computing

Can a quantum computer break encryption?

No quantum computer can break real-world RSA or AES yet. VIDRAFT ran a cryptanalysis experiment on real IBM quantum hardware, recovering the period of an Even-Mansour structure up to N=10 — on actual qubits, not a simulator.

Published 2026-07-24About 3min readby VIDRAFT

Quick answer

Not yet. No quantum computer at the scale needed to threaten real-world RSA or AES exists. But VIDRAFT ran a cryptanalysis experiment on real IBM quantum hardware — not a simulator — recovering the period of an Even-Mansour structure up to N=10, and the paper was selected in SemiEngineering's weekly security-research review.

Is it true that quantum computers break encryption?

In theory yes, in practice not for a long time. Shor's algorithm shows a large enough error-corrected quantum computer could break RSA, but no machine at that scale exists. Today's quantum computers have few qubits and high noise, so they do not threaten real-world encryption.

The phrase 'quantum computers break encryption' is often overstated. Precisely, a specific algorithm could defeat a specific cipher, and doing so needs error-corrected qubits thousands to millions of times beyond today's. So the field moves on two tracks: migrating to post-quantum cryptography, and measuring how far the algorithms actually run on real hardware.

What exactly did this experiment do?

It recovered the hidden period of the symmetric Even-Mansour construction on real quantum hardware, up to N=10. That is a demonstration of quantum period-finding on a specific structure on actual qubits — different in scale and nature from breaking a real cipher like RSA or AES.

Even-Mansour is a simple symmetric structure common in cryptographic theory. Running the quantum period-search on real qubits, the team recovered the period to N=10 despite noise. This is not 'we broke real encryption' but evidence of how far a cryptanalysis routine runs stably on an actual machine.

Why does 'real hardware' matter?

Most quantum-cryptanalysis results stay on paper or in noise-free simulators. Real hardware has physical noise — gate errors, decoherence — that makes it far harder. Confirming it works on a real machine narrows the gap between theory and practice.

Simulators assume ideal qubits, but a real IBM processor accumulates error every operation. Running the algorithm to completion there is a different order of difficulty; the 'up to N=10' figure matters less for its size than for establishing a reproducible procedure on real hardware.

Why did this get outside attention?

Editors at the US chip-industry journal SemiEngineering selected the paper in their weekly security-research review, listing it alongside papers from institutions like Meta and Google. It was an editorial pick, not a press release we distributed.

This is a listing in a curated review, not a feature or a citation. Still, being chosen by editors rather than pushed as PR makes it an earned pickup, and it reflects the timeliness of running on real IBM hardware while most quantum cryptanalysis stays in simulation.

Frequently asked questions

Is my data or encryption at risk now?: No. Today's quantum computers are nowhere near the scale to break real-world RSA or AES. A long-term migration to post-quantum cryptography is nonetheless advised.
How is this different from Shor's algorithm?: Shor targets public-key (asymmetric) ciphers like RSA. This experiment demonstrates period-finding on a symmetric structure like Even-Mansour on real hardware — a different target and scale.
Where can I read the paper?: It is published on HuggingFace Papers (arXiv 2607.18340).

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This article is based on VIDRAFT's public, measured data and external sources. Performance figures are measurements under the stated conditions and may vary by environment.