Companies such as IBM offer timeshare access to prototype quantum computers, but researchers have shown that they can access other users’ data on these machines
Like a tin-can telephone, quantum computers are vulnerable to eavesdropping
Westend61 GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo
Hackers could steal sensitive data from a quantum computer even if the information were carefully wiped, researchers have warned.
While quantum computers aren’t yet large or reliable enough to solve significant real-world problems, companies such as Amazon and Microsoft offer timeshare access to nascent machines. Users are given access to just part of a computer while others also use it, or can use a whole machine for a specific period of time, in much the same way that mainframe computers were used in the 1960s and 1970s. …
Article amended on 21 November 2022
We removed the details of a second quantum hack
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