Quantum Computers will not break into your mailbox anytime soon

If you follow tech news, you must have heard this one before: Quantum Computers will break internet encryption. This is thanks to one of the most celebrated results in Quantum Information: Shor’s algorithm for factorizing prime numbers. In early 2020, Google CEO Sundar Pichai claimed that

“In 5–10 years, quantum computing will break encryption as we know it today”.

Is that right?

Pichai’s statement should be considered seriously, but with a big dose of skepticism. In this…