Dr Michael Cuthbert, Director of the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre, said: “The new results mark a pivotal step forward in ion trap quantum computing and validates the scalability of the technology.”

However, although advances in quantum computing and its scalability offer many advantages, they may also increase risks to current encryption methods. For example, algorithms like RSA and ECC, which rely on difficult mathematical problems, could be easily broken by quantum computers using Shor’s algorithm. This makes the development and implementation of quantum resistant encryption, such as lattice based cryptography or quantum key distribution, urgently necessary. Immediate action is required to safeguard sensitive data against future quantum threats.