In about 10 years‚ current encryption techniques used in online banking will be rendered obsolete by quantum computing.

Scientists at Wits University are among global groups that are pioneering the use of quantum computing to create new fundamentally secure ways of sending data‚ using the laws of quantum physics to render codes unbreakable.

Distinguished Professor of Physics Andrew Forbes runs a structured light laboratory at Wits that uses optical light patterns and quantum physics to exponentially improve both the speed and security of the internet.

His team has funding from the state-run Technology Innovation Agency to design a prototype device that will take their experimental workings in the lab and put them in a patentable device for industry to work with by next year.

It is hoped that industry would then take this prototype and spend a few years making it into a smaller‚ simpler consumer device or computer that offers completely secure and speedy internet.

Forbes explained that current internet security uses difficult codes that computers take years to break‚ while secure banking transactions take minutes or hours.