Sundar Pichai Warns Davos that Quantum Computers Will Be Able to Break Encryption in Five Years

(Telegraph.co.uk) Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Sundar Pichai warned that quantum computers will be able to break encryption within as little as five years, signalling the growing threat to privacy such technological advances pose.
Mr Pichai said a combination of artificial intelligence and quantum would “help us tackle some of the biggest problems we see”, but said it was important encryption evolved to match this.
His comments come amid growing pressure on technology companies to be able to protect their customers’ data from ever more sophisticated threats. Many businesses, like Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging app, use encryption to ensure messages remain private, and cannot be accessed by hackers.