The power of quantum computers creates an unprecedented threat to the security of our data through its potential to break the cryptography that underpins our digital ecosystem. The technology community can address and manage this risk that has the potential to act as a strategic blocker to the wider adoption of Quantum technology; doing so will help unlock the trillion-dollar potential value of quantum technology to the global economy.
For all the dramatic advances they will offer, quantum computers could threaten our ability to encrypt information and exchange it securely. While this development has the potential for significant economic and geopolitical disruption, the technology to mitigate this risk exists today and it also presents a transformative opportunity to deliver a new level of digital trust and security.
What the world needs is a quantum security coalition, a global community of those who are committed to promoting the safe and secure adoption of new quantum applications, promoting better quantum literacy among global leaders, and accelerating a secure global ecosystem, including quantum security technology, that will be able to unlock the true value and potential of this technology securely.
Quantum science is now being harnessed to build a strong cybersecurity response to both a future as well as the current threat landscape. The resultant technologies can provide the basis for a new security foundation that will offer a step-change in our ability to secure our digital infrastructure but we need action now to incentivize their widespread adoption across the digital ecosystem.
Leveraging the laws of physics, quantum-enabled technologies, such as quantum key distribution and quantum random number generation, are not susceptible to attacks from either quantum computers or powerful mathematical techniques. As such they can provide robust and future-proof security and potentially a new paradigm of trust not currently available using traditional approaches.
These physics-based approaches, based on advanced cybersecurity software and next-generation cryptographic strategies (known as post-quantum algorithms), deliver resilient cybersecurity infrastructure capable of safeguarding our digital lives and connected societies today and into the future. Quantum-enabled technologies form the core of the quantum principles that can be employed to assure the security of digital communications. The following examples of potential applications will play a critical role in building trust in the digital ecosystem.:
1. Quantum key distribution technology uses quantum effects to protect the most critical and vulnerable link in the security chain: the exchange of encryption keys between parties. The diagram below illustrates a quantum key distribution system using an optical fibre-based channel to exchange key material, protected by the laws of quantum physics. Adaptations to other channels such as 'over-the-air' quantum key distribution are also maturing.
Quantum key distribution (QKD)
Image: Quintessence Labs
2. Quantum effects can also be harnessed to deliver high-speed streams of truly random (known as full entropy) bits, which can be used to construct high-quality encryption keys. By virtue of being truly random, and thus unpredictable, such keys are more secure. Devices capturing these quantum effects are now mature and are today being deployed in existing technology and infrastructure.
The importance of entropy in security is well illustrated by cautionary tales of what has happened when too much reliance has been placed on deterministic or algorithmic approaches to generating random numbers.
In 2017, Russian hackers cheated casinos out of millions of dollars by targeting weak (software-based) pseudo-random number generation algorithms in slot machines. They used smartphones to record the patterns of the spins of slot machine wheels and then reverse-engineered the underlying random number-generation algorithm. This enabled the hackers to predict the spins and monetize this predictability. As a consequence, the gaming industry has been one of the first to start realizing the potential power of quantum-enabled true random number generation.
The foundations of this new security paradigm are firmly in place; however more work is needed to drive broad adoption. This is a new technology, and within the security ecosystem progress is being made within the academic, innovation labs and specialist technical communities. But within the security field we see two main barriers that the wider community needs to address:
Barrier 1: Maturity and standards
While quantum entropy is a known, highly capable technology for generating encryption keys that is also ready for broad implementation, there still remain barriers to the deployment of other components of the quantum principles, specifically post-quantum algorithms and quantum key distribution. This includes determining which of the proposed post-quantum algorithms will provide the most robust and durable security while minimizing operational impacts and costs. Similarly, there are multiple different types of quantum key distribution under development that meet a range of needs, and potentially causing confusion among early adopters.
Barrier 2: Building the quantum security ecosystem
Currently, there is a major gap in both awareness of and information about the potential applications, risks and security solutions associated with quantum technology. For leaders charged with ensuring the security and integrity of the systems on which businesses rely, there is still hyperbole in the quantum security debate. The community can change this by building quantum literacy at the board and CEO level. This will require actions at the individual as well as the collective leadership level from gaining an inventory of information assets (including shared infrastructure) and developing a comprehensive understanding of risks potentially impacted by quantum technology to building a roadmap identifying key milestones and trigger events.
In parallel, this technology transition requires the urgent development of a pipeline of professionals to implement these principles effectively. The quantum security market alone is expected to grow to globally to $25 billion in just a few short years. The community needs to start investing in skills and the supply ecosystem must start preparing for a quantum-enabled safe and digitally secure posture. The acceleration of government-led initiatives such as those announced in the US, EU, India, Japan, and Australia will also help.
It is imperative that the cybersecurity community begins to build and accelerate its adoption of quantum security technology, and to move its value from the technical to the transformative space. This emerging technology is already being implemented to build a strong cybersecurity response to the potential cryptographic threat, but these new quantum-enabled technologies provide the basis for a new security foundation that will offer a step-change in our ability to secure digital infrastructure.
View post:
Here's why we need to build a quantum security coalition - World Economic Forum
- New History of the Physics Department by Raj Gupta and Paul Sharrah Published - University of Arkansas Newswire - March 3rd, 2021
- New research indicates the whole universe could be a giant neural network - The Next Web - March 3rd, 2021
- Roivant Grows Computational Drug Discovery Engine with Acquisition of Silicon Therapeutics - Business Wire - March 3rd, 2021
- Physics - The Tiniest Superfluid Circuit in Nature - Physics - February 27th, 2021
- Can god be disproved using the laws of physics? An expert explains how it depends on perspective - Scroll.in - February 27th, 2021
- How philosophy blends physics with the idea of free will - Big Think - February 27th, 2021
- Exclusive! Ashwin Sanghi on his dream to cast Sushant Singh Rajput in 'Keepers Of The Kalachakra' series: He was like an excited child when it came to... - February 27th, 2021
- SD Times Open-Source Project of the Week: PennyLane - SDTimes.com - February 27th, 2021
- Google Teams With D-Wave in Massive Quantum Computing Leap, Cracking Simulation Problem - The Daily Hodl - February 27th, 2021
- Tech Talk: Universe or multiverse? | Free - Ashland Daily Press - February 27th, 2021
- Physicists Show a Speed Limit Also Applies in the Quantum World - SciTechDaily - February 25th, 2021
- Can the laws of Physics help settle the debate over the existence of God? - Firstpost - February 25th, 2021
- OU appoints three to rank of Distinguished Professor - 2021 - Office of the Provost - News - OU Magazine - News at OU - February 25th, 2021
- Mid-Atlantic Quantum Alliance Expands Impact and Reach with Addition of 10 New Partners - PR Web - February 25th, 2021
- Everything you need to know about quantum physics (almost ... - February 22nd, 2021
- Quantum mechanics - Wikipedia - February 22nd, 2021
- Six Things Everyone Should Know About Quantum Physics - February 22nd, 2021
- A new Approach Could Tease out the Connection Between Gravity and Quantum Mechanics - Universe Today - February 22nd, 2021
- And So It Begins Quantum Physicists Create a New Universe With Its Own Rules - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel - February 22nd, 2021
- IBM adds 10 historically Black colleges and universities to quantum computing center - TechRepublic - February 22nd, 2021
- Physicists Need to Be More Careful with How They Name Things - Scientific American - February 22nd, 2021
- Can the laws of physics disprove God? - The Conversation UK - February 22nd, 2021
- Planet Earth Report The Quantum Century to Events That Could Have Ended Humanity - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel - February 22nd, 2021
- A New Measurement of Quantum Space-Time Has Found Nothing Going On - ScienceAlert - February 22nd, 2021
- With a $50,000 Grant, Black Quantum Futurism Will Continue to Disrupt Space and Time - GalleristNY - February 22nd, 2021
- Gravity May Play a Tiny But Important Role in The Microworld of Particle Physics - ScienceAlert - February 22nd, 2021
- IBM Adds Future Developer And Software Details To Its Quantum Roadmap - Forbes - February 22nd, 2021
- Physics - A Superconducting Qubit that Protects Itself - Physics - February 22nd, 2021
- Black Quantum Futurism receives the Knight Foundations new art and technology fellowship - WHYY - February 22nd, 2021
- What science tells us about the quantum origin of the universe - Sunday Vision - February 22nd, 2021
- Quantum Mechanics, Free Will and the Game of Life - Scientific American - February 14th, 2021
- Quantum Theory Proposes That Cause and Effect Can Go In Loops - Universe Today - February 14th, 2021
- The search for dark matter gets a speed boost from quantum technology - The Conversation US - February 14th, 2021
- Microsofts Big Win in Quantum Computing Was an Error After All - WIRED - February 14th, 2021
- Kangaroo Court: Quantum Computing Thinking on the Future - JD Supra - February 14th, 2021
- New EU Consortium shaping the future of Quantum Computing USA - PRNewswire - February 14th, 2021
- 2020 Quantum Communications in Space Research Report: Quantum Communications are Expected to Solve the Problem of Secure communications First on... - February 14th, 2021
- Mutually unbiased bases and symmetric informationally complete measurements in Bell experiments - Science Advances - February 14th, 2021
- Yale Quantum Institute Co-sponsored Event - Alternative Realities for the Living - Quantum Physics & Fiction - Yale News - February 14th, 2021
- Dont Tell Einstein, but Black Holes Might Have Hair - WIRED - February 14th, 2021
- A Magnetic Twist to Graphene Could Offer a Dramatic Increase in Processing Speeds Compared to Electronics - SciTechDaily - February 14th, 2021
- The Interplay between Quantum Theory And Artificial Intelligence - Analytics India Magazine - February 14th, 2021
- In Violation of Einstein, Black Holes Might Have 'Hair' - Quanta Magazine - February 14th, 2021
- Dr. William Audeh - The Gazette - February 10th, 2021
- Quantum Physics | Rakuten Viki - February 6th, 2021
- Switching Nanolight On and Off | Columbia News - Columbia University - February 6th, 2021
- Scientists narrow down the 'weight' of dark matter trillions of trillions of times - Livescience.com - February 6th, 2021
- The Super Bowl: What is time? - SB Nation - February 6th, 2021
- 'Friends' Star Matthew Perry Dated Julia Roberts By Wooing Her With Quantum Physics and Funny Jokes - Showbiz Cheat Sheet - February 6th, 2021
- A world-first method to enable quantum optical circuits that use photons - Tech Explorist - February 6th, 2021
- Quantum Physics Story Helgoland to Be Adapted by Fremantles The Apartment, CAM Film (EXCLUSIVE) - Variety - February 2nd, 2021
- Quantum physics and romance collide in the streaming production of Constellations - Chicago Reader - February 2nd, 2021
- 'A Glitch in the Matrix' Director Was Skeptical About Simulation Theory Until He Started Doing Research - IndieWire - February 2nd, 2021
- Record-Breaking Source for Single Photons Developed That Can Produce Billions of Quantum Particles per Second - SciTechDaily - February 2nd, 2021
- Can public clouds fix the developer experience in the HPC domain? - Forbes - February 2nd, 2021
- 29 Scientists Came Together in the "Most Intelligent Photo" Ever Taken - My Modern Met - February 2nd, 2021
- Silence your stoner friends with this video of a room entirely constructed out of mirrors - The A.V. Club - February 2nd, 2021
- Valuable contributor to society - The Tribune India - February 2nd, 2021
- Copperizing the Complexity of Superconductivity - Newswise - February 2nd, 2021
- A Zoom with a view: Wintersession offers a virtual journey from the kitchen to Hollywood - Princeton University - February 2nd, 2021
- IBMs top executive says, quantum computers will never reign supreme over classical ones - The Hindu - January 29th, 2021
- How quantum is it? U of T physicist Aaron Goldberg may have the answer - News@UofT - January 29th, 2021
- Wormholes May Be Lurking in the Universe Here Are Proposed Ways of Finding Them - SciTechDaily - January 29th, 2021
- The Convergence of Internet of Things and Quantum Computing - BBN Times - January 29th, 2021
- Who You Really Are And Why It Matters | Practical Ethics - Practical Ethics - January 29th, 2021
- The relativity principle of physics in technology - The National - January 29th, 2021
- If Wormholes Are Lurking in Our Universe, This Is How We Could Find Them - ScienceAlert - January 17th, 2021
- New quantum particle may have been accidentally discovered - New Atlas - January 13th, 2021
- Exploring the unanswered questions of our universe with quantum technologies - University of Birmingham - January 13th, 2021
- Wormholes may be lurking in the universe and new studies are proposing ways of finding them - The Conversation UK - January 13th, 2021
- Surprising Discovery of Unexpected Quantum Behavior in Insulators Suggests Existence of Entirely New Type of Particle - SciTechDaily - January 13th, 2021
- New quantum technology projects to solve mysteries of the universe - Open Access Government - January 13th, 2021
- University of Sheffield to lead multi-million pound project which could open up a new frontier in physics - University of Sheffield News - January 13th, 2021
- The Greatest: Four Legends Gather in One Night in Miami - Memphis Flyer - January 13th, 2021
- Raytheon UK part of team transforming the Royal Navy's technology, training and learning solutions - PRNewswire - January 13th, 2021
- Optical selection and sorting of nanoparticles according to quantum mechanical properties - Science Advances - January 13th, 2021
- Birds Have a Mysterious 'Quantum Sense'. For The First Time, Scientists Saw It in Action - ScienceAlert - January 9th, 2021
- The unhackable computers that could revolutionize the future - CNN - January 9th, 2021
- How understanding light has led to a hundred years of bright ideas - The Economist - January 9th, 2021
- Quantum Nanodevice Can Be Both a Heat Engine and Refrigerator at the Same Time - SciTechDaily - January 9th, 2021