Wang Chao from Shanghai University, used a D-Wave machine to attack Substitution-Permutation Network (SPN) structured algorithms that perform a series of mathematical operations to encrypt info. SPN techniques are at the heart of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) – one of the most widely used encryption standards.

The techniques used were applied to a 22-bit key but usually 2048 to 4096 bit keys are used. Breaking the longer keys is many billion trillions of times more difficult.