Tag Archive for: Quantum

Telcos, banks, data centres urged to explore use of quantum security at new centre

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SINGAPORE – Hackers armed with quantum computers may soon trump virtual private networks, decode passwords and break other traditional encryption software that forms the basis of today’s Internet security.

And the adoption of new cyber-security software to fend off hackers who could soon wreak havoc with quantum technology is not catching quickly enough.

A newly launched experience centre, dubbed the Quantum Networks Experience Centre, at research and development hub one-north hopes to bridge the gap.

It was launched last week by National University of Singapore’s quantum security systems spin-off SpeQtral in partnership with Japanese firm Toshiba. The centre aims to promote the adoption of quantum-secure systems in the region.

It is hoped that national agencies and private enterprises such as telcos, banks and data centres can explore commercial uses for the technology.

The effort is backed by the National Research Foundation, Temasek and national institutions such as Enterprise Singapore and the Economic Development Board.

Standard encryption, which is based on mathematical codes, has become all too familiar to hackers who can decrypt it to access sensitive secrets or cripple networks.

Quantum cryptography, on the other hand, harnesses the quantum properties of light particles to create a seemingly unbreakable cryptographic algorithm to secure satellite or fibre broadband communications.

In the wrong hands, quantum technology can unravel the Internet, as it can potentially crack current encryption algorithms exponentially faster than even the best of non-quantum machines.

National institutions have recognised the promise and potential threat of the nascent technology and doubled down on investments in the field. The authorities and cyber-security providers have also urged businesses to heed these early warnings.

SpeQtral chief executive Lum Chune Yang said: “In terms of general knowledge about quantum communications, it is nowhere near what it needs to be… Any institution that handles high-value data or a high volume of data should take note.”

He added: “We are entrusting government agencies, banks and cloud providers with all our data, so those…

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Bitcoin Security Could Be Vulnerable to New Quantum Computers in 2023

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Fujitsu and Riken research institute, Japanese tech multinationals are expected to jointly launch a potential Bitcoin-beating quantum computer to companies in 2023.

The computer, significantly more powerful than Frontier, the world’s fastest supercomputer built by Hewlett-Packard, is expected to be used initially for financial forecasting and developing new medicines.

Fujitsu’s new computer will use so-called superconductor materials that exhibit zero electrical resistance when cooled to near a temperature known as “absolute zero.” 

“Quantum computing has the potential to change the world on a massive level. You can solve problems in molecular dynamics, in finance, in medicine,” said Fujitsu CEO Vivek Mahajan in an Oct. 14, 2022 interview with CNBC

According to Mahajan, quantum computers could potentially solve mathematical optimization problems like Shor’s algorithm or the so-called traveling salesman problem. It could solve other problems deemed too difficult for even supercomputers. Shor’s algorithm uses quantum technology to guess the prime factors of technology. While the traveling salesman problem attempts to find the shortest route that can be taken to visit every city connected by a local highway system, and then return to the starting point.

While companies like Google have made significant strides in developing their own supercomputer, it only sees the commercialization potential of its machine in 2029, which could give Fujitsu a head start. 

Fujitsu’s computer has 64 “qubits,” the basic unit of information in a quantum computer, compared to Google’s 53. 

Fujitsu heading up Bitcoin’s quantum threat

P2P exchange LocalBitcoins, as well as a 2022 academic paper from Sussex University have cautioned that quantum computers could break the SHA256 algorithm used in the Bitcoin network. 

Miners in a proof-of-work blockchain system like Bitcoin compete to find a numerical solution to the SHA256 algorithm that beats a network target known as the difficulty. Miners perform so-called hashing operations on the header of a Bitcoin transaction block and a random number. Using the SHA256 algorithm, to obtain a numerical solution that follows a certain…

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Chicago scientists are testing an unhackable quantum internet in their basement closet

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A picture of Thomas the Tank Engine is displayed on a piece of equipment in the quantum computing lab at the University of Chicago's Eckhardt Research Center on Oct. 4, 2022.

A picture of Thomas the Tank Engine is displayed on a piece of equipment in the quantum computing lab at the University of Chicago’s Eckhardt Research Center on Oct. 4, 2022. (Taylor Glascock/for The Washington Post)

CHICAGO — The secret to a more secure and powerful internet — one potentially impossible to hack — might be residing in a basement closet seemingly suited for brooms and mops.

The 3-foot-wide cubby, in the bowels of a University of Chicago laboratory, contains a slim rack of hardware discreetly firing quantum particles into a fiber-optic network. The goal: to use nature’s smallest objects to share information under encryption that cannot be broken — and eventually to connect a network of quantum computers capable of herculean calculations.

The modest trappings of Equipment Closet LL211A belie the importance of a project at the forefront of one of the world’s hottest technology competitions. The United States, China and others are vying to harness the bizarre properties of quantum particles to process information in powerful new ways — technology that could confer major economic and national-security benefits to the countries that dominate it.

Quantum research is so important to the future of the internet that it is drawing new federal funding, including from the recently adopted Chips and Science Act. That’s because, if it pans out, the quantum internet could safeguard financial transactions and health care data, prevent identity theft and stop hostile state hackers in their tracks.

Just this past week, three physicists shared the Nobel Prize for quantum research that helped pave the way for this future internet.

Quantum research still has plenty of obstacles to overcome before it reaches widespread use. But banks, health-care companies and others are starting to run experiments on the quantum internet. Some industries are also tinkering with early stage quantum computers to see whether they might eventually crack problems that current computers can’t, such…

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Quantum Computing Attacks Still Years Off, but “Hack Now Decrypt Later” Presents Immediate Cyber Risk

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Quantum computing attacks, which are feared to utterly break modern encryption on the internet, are still about a decade from being viable. They are widely seen as an inevitability, however, and that has not stopped attackers from preparing well in advance. A new poll from Deloitte finds there is an immediate and significant cyber risk from “harvest now decrypt later” (HNDL) attacks, in which attackers steal encrypted information and simply sit on it until quantum computing advances make it trivial to crack.

Among other findings, a little over half of the IT professionals surveyed say that their organizations are presently at risk of HNDL attacks. But fewer than half are presently on top of their analysis of this emerging cyber risk, and about 11% say there will need to be a cyber incident (the point at which it is far too late) before their leadership will be driven to do something about the threat.

Seemingly distant cyber risk already in the early exploitation stages

The Deloitte poll included the input of over 400 IT professionals working at organizations that are actively considering the benefits of quantum computing, though not necessarily the new level of cyber risk that accompanies it. Only a little over 26% said that they have completed a risk assessment at this point. 18% have plans to do it this year, and 16% say that they will do it in the next two to five years. 13% say they either do not plan to do it for more than five years or have no intention of doing it at all.

Roughly the same amount of organizations that plan to perform a cyber risk assessment well before quantum computing is expected to become a threat, a little over half of all respondents, also feel that HNDL is an immediate threat to their organization. 21% do not feel it is a threat, and 28% do not know.

What would push some of the more reluctant organizations to take quantum computing threats seriously? 27% of respondents said that it would take regulatory pressure. 20% believe leadership will have to be convinced to demand change, 15% think change will be sparked if competitors are observed doing it, and 11% said it would take nothing less than getting hit with a quantum computing attack to move the…

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