How IBM Is Making Your Passwords Useless
For years, quantum computing has been hailed as a technology that could change the way the modern world works, but a long-standing technical issue has kept that potential from being realized. Now, in a paper published in the journal Nature last week, IBM scientists have taken a big step (see how I avoided the temptation to make a pun there?) toward solving that problem — and while it could represent progress toward making quatum computers real, it also could mean that current cybersecurity standards will soon be much easier to crack. In other words, your passwords could be obsolete soon.
The power of quantum computing has some obvious appeal: The increase in processing power could speed up research, especially in big data applications. Problems with large datasets, or those that need many millions (or billions, or more) of simulations to develop a working theory, would be able to be run at speeds unthinkable today. This could mean giant leaps forward in medical research, where enhanced simulations can be used to test cancer treatments or work on the development of new vaccines for ebola, HIV, malaria and the other diseases. High-level physics labs like CERN could use the extra power to increase our understanding of the way the universe at large works.
But the most immediate impact for the regular person would be in the way your private information is kept safe. Current encryption relies on massively large prime numbers to encode your sensitive information. Using combinations of large prime numbers means that anyone trying to crack such encryption needs to attempt to factor at least one of those numbers to get into encrypted data. When you buy something from, say, Amazon, the connection between your computer and Amazon is encrypted using that basic system (it's more complicated than that, but that's the rough summary). The time it would take a digital computer to calculate these factors is essentially past the heat death of the universe. (Still, this won't help you if your password is password, or monkey, or 123456. Please, people, use a password manager.)
Quantum computing, however, increases processing speed and the actual nature of the computation so significantly that it reduces that time to nearly nothing, making current encryption much less secure.
The IBM researcher that could make that happen is complicated, and it requires some background explanation. For starters, while a "traditional" computing bit can be either a 0 or a 1, a quantum computing bit can have three (or infinite, depending on how you want to interpret the concept) states. More specifically, a qubit can be 0, 1, or both.
Up until now, the both part of that caused some problems in realizing the power of quantum computing.
Apparently — and you'll have to take this on faith a bit, as it hurts my head to think about it — the both state can switch back to either 0 or 1 at any given point, and sometimes incorrectly, based on the logic in the programming. Think about when your phone freezes up for a second or two while you're matching tiles. This is its processor handling vast amounts of information and filtering out the operations that fail for any number of reasons, from buggy code to malware to basic electrical noise. When there are only the two binary states, this is a process that usually happens behind the scenes and quickly.
The hold-up with quantum computing up until now is that the vastly greater potential for errors has stymied attempts to identify and nullify them. One additional wrinkle in this reading quantum states is familiar to anyone with basic science fiction knowledge, or perhaps just the ailurophobics. What if the action of reading the qubit actually causes it to collapse to 0 or 1?
The very smart people at IBM think they've solved this. The actual technical explanation is involved, and well beyond my ability to fully follow, but the gist is that instead of just having the qubits arrayed in a lattice on their own, they are arranged such that neighbors essentially check each other, producing the ability to check the common read problems.
That opens the door to further quantum computing developments, including ones that will make your password a thing of the past. So, does this mean that you need to start hoarding gold? No, not yet. And hopefully before quantum computing reaches commercial, or even simply industrial/governmental levels, a better cyber security method will be in place. Or the robots will have already taken over. I for one welcome them.
Obama’s Approval Tanks Over the Economy and ISIS
For a while, President Obama enjoyed a revival in popularity after years of public unease and displeasure with his stewardship of the economy and foreign policy. His approval rating jumped as high as 49 percent in mid-January, according to Gallup, and then tapered off a little amid renewed uncertainty about the economic recovery.
In the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, however, 45 percent of Americans say they approve of Obama’s job performance, while 49 percent disapprove. That is his weakest rating in the survey since late 2014. The president effectively lost five points in approval since January and he hasn’t seen majority support since May 2013, according to survey analysis.
Analysts blame the decline in the president’s approval on continued economic anxiety at home – despite a drop in the unemployment rate to 5.4 percent in April and other signs of economic revival – and the advance of ISIS and other Islamic extremists in Iraq and Syria.
The condition of the economy consistently has topped the list of voters’ concerns heading into the 2016 campaign. The economic gains touted by the administration since the end of the Great Recession in June 2009 apparently haven’t been enough to calm fears, analysts say.
Seventy-three percent of those surveyed recently remain worried about the economy’s direction, and among them Obama’s approval drops to 35 percent, according to the survey. What’s more, Obama gets only a 31 percent approval rating specifically for handling the advance of ISIS militants, with 55 percent disapproving. Public approval of the president’s handling of the war against ISIS is 16 percentage points worse than his rating on handling the economy.
3 Dumb Moves That Can Hurt Your Career

What's the most common way to breach workplace etiquette and curb your career growth, if not derail it altogether?
AccountTemps says employers and staffers don't always see office etiquette the same. But bosses certainly have more leverage in the matter, since they can fire employees who buck the rules, and a company survey finds U.S. chief financial officers are most often bugged by workers "being distracted" on the job (27% of CFOs say so) and "gossiping about colleagues" (18%).
Other top offenses cited by CFOs:
- Not responding to calls or emails.
- Being late to meetings, or missing them.
- Not crediting other staffers when appropriate.
Employers and workers may not see the top etiquette breaches equally, but they agree on professional decorum more than they disagree, and the shared message is easy to sum up: "Most jobs today require teamwork and strong collaboration skills, and that means following the unwritten rules of office protocol," says Bill Driscoll, a district president of Accountemps. "Poor workplace etiquette demonstrates a lack of consideration for coworkers."
Related: Modern Etiquette: Outclassing the Competition
Of course, the list of workplace professional breaches exceeds the AccountTemps list.
"I've seen it all," notes Nicole Williams, a workplace consultant and a career contributor to NBC's The Today Show. "Employees who lie on expense reports; who badmouth the company or boss on social media or to clients; proofreading mistakes; missing deadlines. Just to name a few."
If you do trip up on the job, it's best to be accountable. "If you really screw up, you have to suffer the consequences in silence," Williams says. "Don't protest, don't try and get out of it, and don't put the blame on someone or something else. People will respect you more for owning your mistakes."
This article originally appeared on Main Street
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The Lucrative Business of SAT Test Prep Is About to Get Disrupted

For years, critics of the SAT have claimed that wealthy students who can afford expensive, private test prep courses have a leg up on poorer students without access to such classes.
That just changed. Starting yesterday, all students can access free, high-quality online test prep via a new partnership between the College Board, which administers the test, and online course powerhouse Khan Academy, a nonprofit supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Ann and John Doerr among others. The online program will include quizzes, video lessons and personalized lessons.
The Official SAT Practice will focus on the recently redesigned SAT, with questions created by the tests’ authors.
Related: SAT Tests: Another Drain on the Family Budget
College test preparation is a $4.5 billion business. Private SAT tutors charge in excess of $100 per hour and classes from companies like Kaplan or Princeton Review run about $1,000. And those classes may help. Students from the wealthiest families have average test scores that are more than 300 points higher than students from the poorest families on average, according to the College Board.
In recent years, more colleges have moved away from the SAT and its competitor, the ACT, as a backlash against the tests have grown.
More than 850 schools have made the tests optional for admission, according to advocacy group FairTest, choosing instead to focus on class grades and other factors. A study released last year of undergrads at those schools found no difference in either the GPAs or the graduation rates of students who took the SATs versus those that skipped it.
Gas Prices This Summer Could Be Cheapest Since 2009
Gas prices have been on a tear in recent weeks, hitting a national average this week of $2.75 per gallon, the highest price this year, but they’re poised to fall back down as the summer progresses, according to AAA.
The organization is predicting that the cost of gas could fall to its lowest levels since 2009, which is good news for travelers ready to hit the road. About 60 percent of Americans recently surveyed by AAA said they were more likely to take a long road trip this year is gas prices remain low.
While the national average price of gas remains well below $3 per gallon, and 87 percent of U.S. stations are selling gas for below that benchmark, consumers out west and in Hawaii are paying more. Prices in California are highest at $3.30, followed by Hawaii ($3.70) and Nevada ($3.30).
Related: Gas Prices or Economy, Experts Disagree on What Drives U.S. Demand
The average price for a gallon of gas last month was $2.69 per gallon, nearly a dollar less than the $3.66 it cost last May. Economists have been hoping for months that low energy prices would boost consumer spending, but Americans have been choosing to sock away their extra cash rather than spending it.
Personal spending was basically flat in April, falling less than 0.1 percent despite a slight increase in personal income. At the same time, the savings rate increased from 5.2 to 5.6 percent.
Millennial Women are Taking Charge—at Work and at Home

According to a recent report from U.S. Trust, women at the top of the earnings ladder are not only making strides in the workplace, but they’re also taking charge of their households’ finances at higher rates.
The national survey of 640 adults found that among high-net-worth individuals—defined as those with at least $3 million in investable assets—30% of Gen Y women are breadwinners in their households, and another 21% contribute the same amount of income to the household as their partners.
Perhaps even more surprising? That’s true for Millennial women more than any other demo.
Related: How Millennials Could Damage the U.S. Economy
Compare that to the 11% of Gen X women and 15% of Baby Boomer women who earned more than their husbands.
Likely a result, young women have a greater influence over their family’s money decisions than ever. Among today’s high-earning female Millennials, 31% are the primary decision-makers when it comes to their household’s wealth and investment planning. That’s considerably more than the 11% of Gen Xers and 9% of Boomer women who can say the same.
Of course, these role changes don’t just affect women. As moms continue to earn more, about one in four Millennial fathers are more likely to be the primary caretakers of their children—a striking difference from the 7% of Gen X and 3% of Boomer dads who’ve undertaken the same responsibility.