Chinese could hack data for future quantum decryption, report warns

Threat groups' could target valuable secrets with aim of unlocking them when computing power allows

Chinese hackers could target heavily encrypted datasets such as weapon designs or details of undercover intelligence officers with a view to unlocking them at a later date when quantum computing makes decryption possible, a report warns.

Analysts at Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting firm, say Chinese hackers could also steal pharmaceutical, chemical and material science research that can be processed by quantum computers - machines capable of crunching through numbers at unprecedented speed.