Shor's algorithm is a quantum algorithm developed by mathematician Peter Shor in 1994 for efficiently factoring large integers. It is significant because factoring large numbers is a fundamental computational problem that underpins the security of many classical cryptographic systems, such as RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) encryption. The classical methods for factoring integers are inefficient for large numbers, typically requiring exponential time in the size of the number.
