cryptography

His work could lead to advances in cryptography that may eventually make online systems — such as those used for financial transactions — more secure.

A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims' SharePoint data, he said.

"The whole system is massively encrypted and secured using the government's own highest standards of cryptography," she said.

That prime numbers form the foundation of contemporary cryptography is something you can watch YouTube videos about, though it feels like some big revelation here.

The course discussed what it takes to build a quantum computer, its current fragilities - and the challenges quantum computing poses to current systems, such as cryptography.