Cryptographers take on quantum computers - [update]

Software updates, e¿mail, online banking, and the entire realm of public-key cryptography and digital signatures rely on just two cryptography schemes to keep them secure¿RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC). They are exceedingly impractical for today¿s computers to crack, but if a quantum computer is ever built¿which some predict could happen as soon as 10 years from now¿it would be powerful enough to break both codes. Cryptographers are starting to take the threat seriously, and last fall many of them gathered at the PQCrypto conference, in Cincinnati, to examine the alternatives.