This quantum computer built by the Chinese team is real, and can work.

This is how to crack a password. Suppose you have an encrypted file, so you need the password to open it. That is basic and makes sense right?

Suppose the encryption is only string of 3 in length and only the letters A-B-C-D are allowed to be used. You just start trying it, A-A-A, then A-A-B, A-A-C, A-A-D until all the combinations are exhausted. You just guess with all the combinations. Eventually it will work. It just takes some time.

This is called a brute force attack.

The current supercomputers probably can already do this. But that seems like a waste of resources. All they are doing in a brute force attack is compare two strings.

How to compare two strings, well that is simple. What really is needed is a loop to go through the combinations to compare.

Seems to me the algorithm that was used in the experiment, is far harder to do than the basic loop. Here it would be nested loops. But that is still very simple. To crack a password is a simple program. Now they got the fastest computer in the world. They can configure that quantum computer to do a loop changing every character in a string until the right combination is found. All passwords are cracked.

This is what you would do if you were a hacker cracker type of dude or girl.

You break into the database, and rip off all the user names and passwords. The passwords are in the database. When you log on to a network, the database compares the user name and password in the database to the ones sent. This password is encrypted in the database cell/location.

Remember those stories where they accused of the CCP or Chinese military grabbing all the records of US Federal employees of a department? They have their encrypted passwords too.

Put those passwords to be cracked into the program, go have dim sum, and before you finish your cha xiu bao and ha gou, the quantum computer would have cracked it already.

No password for encryption should be safe now.