In fact, they have applications to something as ubiquitous and mundane as making a purchase online. Every time you enter your credit card number on the Internet, prime numbers spring into action.

Prime numbers are fundamental to the most common type of encryption used today: the RSA algorithm. The RSA algorithm was named after the three mathematicians who first publicly unveiled it in 1977.

Prime numbers can only be divided by themselves and 1. Figuring out which numbers are prime can be tricky, so mathematicians have developed various algorithms to speed up the search.

A million-dollar puzzle relating to prime numbers could be tackled using only a mid-sized quantum computer. There is a race to find ever bigger primes , but no way to predict when the next one ...

Therefore, if an 'algorithm that enables prime factorization of a huge number of digits' is developed, its safety will be shaken.