Scramble for Post Quantum

Moving more rapidly than expected. 

The Scramble for Post-Quantum Cryptography

By Samuel Greengard ,  Commissioned by CACM Staff

Researchers are working to counter the threat to current communications posed by the nascent quantum computing arena, which could undermine almost all of the encryption protocols used today.

History has demonstrated that where there are people, there are secrets. From elaborately coded messages on paper to today's sophisticated cryptographic algorithms, a desire to maintain privacy has persisted. Of course, as technology has advanced, the ability to cipher messages but also crack the codes has grown.

"Today's encryption methods are excellent, but we are reaching an inflection point," says Chris Peikert, an associate professor in the Department of Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. "The introduction of quantum computing changes the equation completely. In principle, these devices could break any reasonably-sized public key."

Such an event would wreak havoc. "It would affect nearly everything we do with computers," says Dustin Moody, a mathematician whose focus at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) includes computer security. Within this scenario, he says, computing subsystems, virtual private networks (VPNs), and digital signatures would no longer be secure. As a result, personal data, corporate records, intellectual property, and online transactions would all be at risk.

Consequently, cryptographers are developing new encryption standards that would be resistant to the brute force power of quantum computing. At the center of this effort is an initiative at NIST to identify both lattice-based and code-based algorithms that could protect classical computing systems but also introduce new and more advanced capabilities.  ... ' 

Quantum Communications with Drones

 More on quantum secure communications.

Quantum communication demonstrated by two hovering drones  By Luke Dormehl, January 19, 2021  in DigitalTrends 

The groundwork is being laid for the quantum internet — up in the air. Recently, researchers from Nanjing University in China demonstrated that it is possible to send entangled photons between a pair of drones, called Alice and Bob, hovering one kilometer apart.

This was done by using an onboard laser and crystal to split a single photon into a pair of entangled photons, with one sent to a ground station and the other to the other drone. Motorized devices on the drones made sure that the receivers and transmitters were in alignment with one another.

Distance quantum communication, which could make for more quantum secure networks built on quantum encryption, has been demonstrated before, between satellites and ground stations. However, this demo showed that it can also work using comparatively cheap hardware between shorter distances. As New Scientist pointed out, this is the first time that such photon entanglement has been shown to work between two moving objects.  ... ' 

Light-Based Quantum Computer Exceeds Fastest Classical Supercomputers

More indications of increases in quantum computing speed,  when applied to particular kinds of problems.  But this does not mean this is available yet,  but in a quantum future when fault tolerant quantum computers of sufficient capacity are available 

Light-Based Quantum Computer Exceeds Fastest Classical Supercomputers

Scientific American  by Daniel Garisto

Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) have for the first time coaxed a quantum computer composed of photons to outperform the fastest classical supercomputers. The Jiuzhan system executed Gaussian boson sampling, detecting 76 photons versus classical supercomputers' previous record of five. Jiuzhan combines lasers, mirrors, prisms, and photon detectors, and its achievement is only the second demonstration of quantum primacy to date. UTSC's Chao-Yang Lu said independent corroboration that quantum computing principles can enable primacy on totally different hardware "gives us confidence that in the long term ... useful quantum simulators and a fault-tolerant quantum computer will become feasible."

IBM Plans to Deliver Quantum Safe Crypto in Cloud

Much more at the link.  Available at all scales, speeds, needs?

IBM Cloud Delivers Quantum-Safe Cryptography and Hyper Protect Crypto Services to Help Protect Data in the Hybrid Era  in PRNews

IBM brings hybrid cloud leadership together with quantum and security research expertise to stay at the forefront of quantum cybersecurity

Via IBM

ARMONK, N.Y., Nov. 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a series of cloud services and technologies designed to help clients maintain the highest available level of cryptographic key encryption protection to help protect existing data in the cloud1 and prepare for future threats that could evolve with advances in quantum computing. Pioneered by IBM Research scientists, the company is now offering quantum-safe cryptography support for key management and application transactions in IBM Cloud®, making it the industry's most holistic quantum-safe cryptography approach to securing data available today.

The new capabilities include:

Quantum Safe Cryptography Support: Through the use of open standards and open source technology, this service enhances the standards used to transmit data between enterprise and Cloud, helping to secure data by using a quantum-safe algorithm.

Extended IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Crypto Services: New capabilities are available to enhance privacy of data in cloud applications, where data sent over the network to cloud applications and sensitive data elements like credit card numbers, are stored in a database that can be encrypted at application-level – supported by the industry's highest level of cryptographic key encryption protection with 'Keep Your Own Key' (KYOK) capability.  .... '

Toshiba Targets Quantum Cryptography

Considerable effort under way here:

Toshiba targets $3 billion revenue in quantum cryptography by 2030

By Makiko Yamazaki in Reuters

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp 6502.T said on Monday it aims to generate $3 billion in revenue from its advanced cryptographic technology for data protection by 2030, as the Japanese sprawling conglomerate scrambles to find future growth drivers.

The cyber security technology, called quantum key distribution (QKD), leverages the nature of quantum physics to provide two remote parties with cryptographic keys that are immune to cyberattacks driven by quantum computers.  ... 

Generating Photons for Comunications in Quantum Computing Systems

Precisely generating photons can be seen as a form of communication, and thus says this can then be beyond just computing.

Generating Photons for Communication in Quantum Computing System

MIT News,  Michaela Jarvis

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have developed a technique for inducing quantum bits (qubits) to generate photons to enable quantum processor communication, a key step in achieving interconnections for a modular quantum computing platform. The architecture features superconducting qubits connected to a microwave transmission line or waveguide, with quantum interconnects needed to link qubits at distant locations. Communication occurs in the waveguide as excitations stored within the qubits produce photon pairs, which are emitted into the waveguide and travel to two distant processing nodes, distributing their entanglement throughout a quantum network. Said MIT’s Bharath Kannan, the entanglement “can then be transferred into the processors for use in quantum communication or interconnection protocols."  ... '  

What Is a Quantum-Safe Hybrid Digital Certificate?

More linking Quantum methods and data and communications security.

What Is a Quantum-Safe Hybrid Digital Certificate?     Sectigo  in CYBER SECURITY

Sectigo’s Tim Callan, Jason Soroko and Alan Grau break down what quantum safe hybrid TLS certificates are and how they can help to prepare businesses for quantum-safe cryptography in Sectigo’s Root Causes podcast

Quantum computing is poised to disrupt the technological world as we know it. And although quantum computing — and all of the advantages it offers — is still realistically years away, businesses and organizations need to prepare themselves for its inevitable downside: broken cryptosystems.

Quantum computers will break our existing asymmetric cryptosystem — something that cybercriminals will be ready and eager to take advantage of. This is why it’ll be necessary to migrate your existing IT and cryptosystems to their quantum-resistant or quantum-safe equivalents.

But, of course, upgrading to post quantum cryptographic (PQC) systems and infrastructure takes time and resources. So, one of the ways to help futureproof your cyber security through this process is through the use of hybrid digital certificates such as a hybrid TLS certificate.  ... " 

Quantum Physics To Protect Data Over Standard Telecom Networks

Brought to my attention:

Quantum Breakthrough to Protect Data over Standard Telecom Networks

In an exclusive interview with Fortune,  Quantum Xchange’s CEO John Prisco discusses the technique of quantum key distribution (QKD) to help encrypt information for governments and businesses. This breakthrough technology helps keep nefarious actors from stealing critical information from high profile organizations.

According to Prisco, in the past, QKD could only be used in a fiber optic cable between two endpoints over a short distance. Now, the technology has expanded to transmit over any distance across standard telecom networks. It all started when unprecedented leaks from the US and concerns about telecommunication tampering in China brought public awareness of security breaches to the mainstream. The demand for more secure methods of transmitting encryption keys has sparked the interest of the world.

In an attempt to further secure data, new technology now specialized in a quantum encryptor is available in software, which had only been possible using dedicated hardware. The new key is transmitted between endpoints using a network pathway that is separate from the path used to transmit actual encoded data.  Prisco explains, “This creates triple work for any hacker.” He went on to say that an attacker must identify and hit both the data transmission pathways and the key transmission pathway and know how to synchronize the timing of both transmissions to decode the data. Recently introduced, Quantum Xchange’s new multi-point Phio TX system is being used a large telecommunications company to standardize encryption to accept quantum keys.

To learn more, read the full article: In Breakthrough, Company Uses Quantum Physics To Protect Data Over Standard Telecom Networks     ... "

Also described here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTpFIjtcreA

NIST and Quantum Cryptography

A continued interesting number of government looks at Quantum cryptography:

From Schneier on Security:

NIST has posted an update on their post-quantum cryptography program:
After spending more than three years  examining new approaches to encryption and data protection that could defeat an assault from a quantum computer, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has winnowed the 69 submissions it initially received down to a final group of 15. NIST has now begun the third round of public review. This "selection round" will help the agency decide on the small subset of these algorithms that will form the core of the first post-quantum cryptography standard.  .... "

Cisco on Post Quantum Security

Full considerable article at the link, a good overview of the direction of quantum Crypto, with predictive time line.

It’s Not Too Early to Start Thinking About Post-Quantum Security
By Eve Griliches

In networking and communication, information security is absolutely necessary when transmitting over any untrusted medium, especially the Internet. Interestingly, people have been trying to securely encrypt information for 1000s of years, mostly using intuitive methods of encrypting, which is a good reason why we need cryptography. Cryptography protects data from being stolen or altered and is also used for individual authentication.

Physics proposed a solution known as quantum key distribution (QKD) which uses the quantum property of the particle to create and transmit a secure key. This is an interesting solution because a quantum particle state cannot be copied, so it is inherently possible to validate that a transmitted key is secure.

Actual quantum computers are still in early development but the threat to communication security has triggered investigations into alternative methods to distribute encryption keys. As mentioned before one of the methods proposed to address post-quantum security challenges is the Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) because of its theoretical promise to be intrinsic unbreakable and offering an easy method to detect the eavesdropper presence. Unfortunately, implementation flaws and side-channel attacks could open up a vulnerability, and while current commercial QKD systems are designed to have no exploitable implementation flaws and be resistant against known side-channel attacks, it leaves open the question about side-channel attacks which have yet to be discovered.

It is believed that quantum computing will have a huge impact on areas such as logistics, military activities, pharmaceuticals (drug design and discovery), aerospace design, nuclear fusion, financial modeling, polymer design, Artificial Intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, fault detection, Big Data, and capital goods, especially digital manufacturing. According to an analysis by Nature, private investors have funded at least 52 quantum-technology companies. The market for quantum computing is projected to reach $64.98 billion by 2030 from just $507.1 million in 2019, growing at a CAGR of 56.0% during the forecast period (2020–2030). According to a CIR estimate, revenue from quantum computing is pegged at $8 billion by 2027.

How quantum computing will scale, while quantum error correction itself is an implementation challenge, and still needs to be solved. Real quantum cryptoanalysis is most likely ~10 years away. Quantum key exchange has proven fantastic and unbreakable when implemented correctly, but it is limited by the physical infrastructure. There may be a niche application for relatively short distances, but it will not be a general solution. Cisco is tracking all of the solutions in this area and will bring to market a flexible solution that will enable our customers to use whatever PQ secure solution they feel more appropriate for them.

Read the full Cisco Post-Quantum Security Brief here: 

Quantum Cryptography Explained

A good non-technical, but still challenging explanation of how key-based and then  'quantum cryptography' works.  Also touches on some of the remaining challenges.  In Physics Girl.  Sent via Jeff Dyck.