In the mid-90s American physicist Peter Shor created a quantum algorithm that can be used much faster to find the prime factors of large numbers, than in the case of traditional computing. To find the factors of a prime number - 15 - required 11 qubits (7 and 4 for calculations for caching intermediate data). Qubits - the elements of atomic dimensions, capable of simultaneously carrying values of 0 and 1 (in a state of quantum superposition). In practice, the qubit can be realized today due to a very strong cooling of atoms in ion traps, which are controlled by lasers. .
Later, the Russian scientist Alexey Yurevich Chinas refined Shor's algorithm, allowing to search for the factors of 15 will be enough just 5 qubits. As it became known on Friday, at MIT, based on an algorithm created Kitaeva 5-qubit quantum computer and held it to a successful search for the factors of 15. The main achievement was the practical proof of the possibility of a simple scaling elements of a quantum computer (qubit) to any desired level.
The consequence of this was the fear that the widespread methods of RSA-encryption based on the spread of public keys may suddenly stop working. Rather, all that is encrypted using the RSA method can be "immediately" deciphered using improved quantum algorithms and quantum computers. Today there is no such systems, but they certainly it will appear in the future.