(FINANCIAL TIMES) - In recent years, digital encryption has been subject to what anthropologists sometimes call "social silence". It may be a fundamental part of our lives (we depend on it whenever we bank online, send confidential messages or use tele-health) but most of us don't have any idea how it actually works. Encryption is taken for granted and widely ignored, hence the silence.

But last week, during a debate at the World Economic Forum (WEF) with experts in quantum computing, I realised that we need to urgently listen to what the scientists are saying on this topic. The technology, based on harnessing the curious properties of quantum states, promises computers capable of solving vastly complex problems much faster than traditional machines.