As China Leads Quantum Computing Race, U.S. Spies Plan for a World with Fewer Secrets On 12/14/20 at 5:00 AM EST As China leads in the race to quantum computing edge, US spies plan for a world with few secrets. Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty Back in 1994, when quantum computers existed only as so much chalk on a blackboard, mathematician Peter Shor invented what may soon prove to be their killer app. Shor trained his efforts on a calculation called "factoring," which ordinarily nobody but a mathematician would care about, except it just happens to be an Achilles heel of the internet. If someone were to invent a computer that could perform this operation quickly, messages that are currently hidden from hackers, terrorists, military adversaries, governments and competitors would be as easy to read as a Stephen King novel.