翻译硕士考研者，在暑期阶段需要看双语阅读文章，来提升阅读水平和翻译能力。下面，北京文都考研网为助力翻译硕士学子们在备考上一臂之力，整理了MTI双语阅读精选文章:反量子计算机加密，供考生参考。
2020考研MTI双语阅读精选:反量子计算机加密
AS EVERY SCHOOLCHILD knows, some sorts of mathematics are harder than others. In the classroom, that is annoying. Outside, it can be useful. For instance, given two prime numbers, however large, multiplying them together to find their product is easy. But the reverse—factorising that product back into its constituent primes without knowing in advance what those primes are—is hard, and becomes rapidly harder as the number to be factorised gets bigger.
任何一门数学课程比其他科目难，是个学生对此深有体会。在课堂上，数学课很烦，但在生活中，数学却大有帮助。例如，给定两个质数，不管多大，相乘算出乘积都很容易。但是，在事先不知道这些素数是几的情况下，将这个乘积还原为其构成质数的反因式分解是很困难的，而且随着被因式分解的数字越来越大，这个过程也变得越来越困难。
Factorising numbers into their constituent primes may sound esoteric, but the one-way nature of the problem—and of some other, closely related mathematical tasks—is the foundation on which much modern encryption rests. Such encryption has plenty of uses. It defends state secrets, and the corporate sort. It protects financial flows and medical records. And it makes the $2trn e-commerce industry possible. Without it, credit-card details, bank transfers, emails and the like would zip around the internet unprotected, for anyone so minded to see or steal.
将数字分解成能被其整除的质数看似很深奥，但问题的本质——以及其他一些密切相关的数学任务——就是现代加密技术赖以存在的基础。这种加密技术有很多用途，能保护国家和企业机密;保护资金流动和医疗记录;促成2万亿美元交易额的电子商务产业;如果没有它，信用卡信息、银行转账和电子邮件等等就得不到保护，在互联网上肆意传播，这让有心者偷窥或窃取。
Nobody, however, is certain that the foundation of all this is sound. Though mathematicians have found no quick way to solve the prime-factors problem, neither have they proved that there isn’t one. In theory, any of the world’s millions of professional or amateur mathematicians could have a stroke of inspiration tomorrow and publish a formula that unravels internet cryptography—and most internet commerce with it.
然而，没有人能保证数学的基础是牢不可破。数学家们还没有找到解决质数问题的捷径，但他们也没有证明没有质数。从理论上讲，世界上有数以百万计的专业或业余数学家，保不齐下一秒就灵光一现，发布某项公式破解互联网密码——及其大多数与之有关的互联网商务行为。
Send in the qubits
以量子位方式传输
In fact, something like this has already happened. In 1994 Peter Shor, a mathematician then working at Bell Laboratories, in America, came up with a quick and efficient way to find a number’s prime factors. The only catch was that for large numbers his method—dubbed Shor’s algorithm—needs a quantum computer to work.
事实上，这样的事情发生过。1994年，当时在美国贝尔实验室(Bell Laboratories)工作的数学家彼得·肖尔(Peter Shor)提出了一种快速高效的方法发现某个数字的主要因子。唯一难题就是他的方法——被称为“肖尔算法”——需要一台量子计算机对大量的数字进行计算。
Quantum computers rely on the famous weirdness of quantum mechanics to perform certain sorts of calculation far faster than any conceivable classical machine. Their fundamental unit is the “qubit”, a quantum analogue of the ones and zeros that classical machines manipulate. By exploiting the quantum-mechanical phenomena of superposition and entanglement, quantum computers can perform some forms of mathematics—though only some—far faster than any conceivable classical machine, no matter how beefy.
量子计算机依赖于量子力学的奇异性，比任何经典机器更快的速度进行某些类型的计算。它们的基本单位是“量子位”——是类似经典机器操作的1和0的量子。通过利用量子叠加和纠缠的力学现象，量子计算机可以执行一些数学形式——尽管只有一些——远快于任何可以想象出的速度的经典机器。
When Dr Shor made his discovery such computers were the stuff of science fiction. But in 2001 researchers at IBM announced that they had built one, programmed it with Shor’s algorithm, and used it to work out that the prime factors of 15 are three and five. This machine was about the most primitive quantum computer imaginable. But there has been steady progress since. Alibaba, Alphabet (Google’s parent), IBM, Microsoft and the like are vying to build commercial versions, and the governments of America and China, in particular, are sponsoring research into the matter.
然而，肖尔博士发现这种电脑只存在于科幻小说里。不过，在2001年，IBM的研究人员宣布建造一台量子电脑，用肖尔的算法编程，计算出15的两个质数因子是3和5。这台机器是人们想象的的最原始的量子计算机。自那以来，这一进程一直在稳步推进。阿里巴巴、Alphabet(谷歌的母公司)、IBM、微软等公司都在争相开发商业版本，特别是美国和中国政府都在资助该项研究，要加以实现。
Big quantum computers will have applications in fields such as artificial intelligence and chemistry. But it is the threat posed by Shor’s algorithm that draws most public attention. Large organisations may be able to get around the problem using so-called quantum cryptography. This detects eavesdroppers in a way that cannot be countered. But it is expensive, experimental and unsuitable for the internet because it must run on a special, dedicated network. For most people, therefore, the best hope of circumventing Shor’s algorithm is to find a bit of one-way maths that does not give quantum computers an advantage.
大型量子计算机会在人工智能和化学等领域得到应用，而肖尔算法的威胁也引起了公众的广泛关注。大型机构也许能够利用所谓的量子密码来解决这个问题。该方法能监测窃听者，另其无法反监测。不过，由于价格昂贵，还处于试验阶段，只能在专门的网络上运行，而无法不适用于互联网。因此，对于大多数人来说，要想逃过肖尔算法，最大的希望就是发现单向位数学，不给量子计算机可乘之机。
There are candidates for this. Cryptographers are debating the relative merits of such mathematical curiosities as supersingular isogenies, structured and unstructured lattices, and multivariate polynomials as foundations for quantum-proof cryptography. But translating a piece of maths into usable computer code and then delivering it to the zillions of machines that will need updating will not be easy.
目前有些可参考的方法。密码学家们正在讨论某些神奇的数学算法的相对优势，例如作为量子密码学基础的超奇异等元、结构化和非结构化网格以及多元多项式。但是，要将一段数学转换成可用的计算机代码，然后将其交付给大量需要更新的机器，这不是容易的事。
One question is, when is the deadline? When will an internet-breaking computer actually be available? Today’s best machines can manipulate a few dozen qubits. Brian LaMacchia, who runs the security and cryptography team at Microsoft Research, thinks a “cryptographically interesting” quantum computer might be able to handle somewhere between about 1,000 and 10,000 of them. Predicting progress is hard. But Dr LaMacchia reckons such a machine might be ready some time between 2030 and 2040.
问题是，什么时候才能实现?何年何月才会有破解网络的电脑?今天最好的机器可以操控几十个量子位。微软研究院(Microsoft Research)安全与密码学团队负责人布莱恩•拉玛基亚(Brian LaMacchia)认为，一台“加密式”量子计算机，可能能够处理大约1000到10000个量子位。很难预测出进展。不过，拉玛基亚博士认为，这种量子计算机有可能在2030年至2040年间诞生。
That sounds reassuringly far away. But several researchers argue that things have already been left too late. Though many communications are ephemeral, some people encrypt messages that they hope will remain secret for a long time. Spies and policemen around the world already store reams of online data in the hope that, even if they cannot decrypt them now, they may be able to do so in future. As Peter Schwabe, a cryptographer at Radboud University in the Netherlands, observes: “If someone ten or 20 years from now can decrypt my present-day communications with my bank, well, I probably don’t care too much about that. But if I’m a dissident in some repressive country, talking to other dissidents? That might be a different story.”
这听起来有些遥遥无期。有些研究人员认为不能再拖下去了。虽然许多通信都是短暂的，但一些人希望一些秘密能长期保密。世界各地的间谍和警察储存了大量的网络数据，希望即使他们现在无法解密，将来也能解密。正如荷兰内梅亨大学(Radboud University)密码学家彼得•施瓦贝(Peter Schwabe)所观察到的那样:“如果10年或20年后，有人能解密我目前与银行的通讯，我或许不会太在乎。不过，如果我是某个专制国家的持不同政见者，与其他一些持不同政见者商谈的话，那可能就另当别论了。”
The second problem is how long a fix will take. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an American standards organisation whose decisions are often followed around the world, is running a competition to kick the tyres on various quantum-resistant proposals. But its conclusions are not due until 2024. And as Nick Sullivan, who is in charge of cryptography at Cloudflare, an internet-infrastructure firm, observes, history suggests that, even once a new standard is agreed, the upgrade will be slow and messy. Despite—or perhaps because of—the information-technology industry’s obsession with novelty, the internet resembles ancient cities like Rome and Istanbul, with modern structures built atop forgotten layers of old, unmaintained code.
另一问题是需要多长时间修复漏洞。美国国家标准与技术研究所(NIST)是一家美国标准组织，它设定的标准在全世界通行。该组织铆足劲儿，分析种种量子学反对者的声音。不过，它的研究要到2024年才能得出结论。正如互联网基础设施公司Cloudflare的密码学主管尼克•沙利文所观察到的，历史表明，即使新标准达成一致，但升级过程缓慢，步骤凌乱。尽管——或者可能是因为——信息技术产业热衷于新奇事物，互联网就好比是古罗马和伊斯坦布尔这样的古老城市，那些老旧的未经维护的代码层逐渐被人遗忘，却在其上又加筑了了现代结构。
For example, in 1996 researchers reported the first weaknesses in MD5, a type of widely used cryptographic algorithm called a hash function. A drop-in replacement was readily available in the form of another algorithm called SHA-1. After more than two decades of exhortations to upgrade, though—not to mention high-profile cyber-attacks exploiting MD5’s weaknesses—the older algorithm is often still used. Similarly, a vulnerability called FREAK, discovered in 2015, relied on the fact that many modern applications, including the default browser in Google’s Android operating system and the White House’s website, could be persuaded to revert to old, easily breakable cryptography installed in order to comply with long-abandoned American export regulations.
例如，研究人员在1996年公布了MD5—一种称为“哈希函数”的广泛使用的加密算法——的第一个弱点。另一种名为SHA-1的算法足以取而代之。经过20多年的升级，旧算法仍然经常使用——更不用说利用MD5的弱点进行知名网络攻击了。同样，2015年发现了一个名为FREAK的漏洞，它出现在许多现代的各种应用程序——包括谷歌Androi的默认浏览器和白宫网站——都可以恢复到的老旧且易破解的加密方式，而这么做是为了能遵守早就抛弃的美国出口规定。
以上是北京文都考研网给出的“2020考研MTI双语阅读精选文章:反量子计算机加密”，希望对翻译硕士考生有所帮助!祝2020考研金榜题名!
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