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PQShield, a spin-out from the UK's Oxford University, is developing advanced cryptographic solutions for hardware, software and communications to protect businesses' data from the quantum threat.

The development of quantum computers poses a cybersecurity problem such as the IT industry has never seen before. All stored data currently deemed secure by modern standards whether that's health records, financial data, customer databases and even critical government infrastructure could, in theory, be cracked by quantum computers, which are capable of effectively short circuiting the encryption we've used to protect that data until now.

Efforts to protect our data from the quantum threat are underway, though whether the issue is being looked at with the urgency it deserves is up for debate. PQShield, a post-quantum cryptography startup spun out of Oxford University, perceives a disconnect between the scale of the threat and the current cyber-readiness of most businesses in 2020, which it is now trying to address.

SEE: Quantum computing: Myths v. Realities (TechRepublic)

"The scale of the quantum attack is just too big to imagine," Dr. Ali Kaafarani, research fellow at Oxford's Mathematical Institute and founder of PQShield, tells TechRepublic.

"The most important part of what we're doing is to educate the market."

Kaafarani is a former engineer at Hewlett-Packard Labs and leads a team of 10 full-time quantum cryptographers, from what he estimates to be a worldwide pool of just a hundred or so. The company is busy working on the development of quantum-secure cryptography encryption solutions for hardware, software and communications that will secure information from future risk, yet can be implemented using today's technology.

This comprises a system on chip (SoC) and software development kit that allow companies to create secure messaging applications, protected by a "post-quantum" variant of the Signal cryptographic protocol. Central to PQShield's technology is that it is designed to work with both legacy systems as well as those expected in the years to come, meaning it could offer protection for everything from keyless cars and other connected devices, to data moving to and from cloud servers.

This, Kaafarani explains, is important owing to the fact that post-quantum cryptography cannot be retrospectively implemented meanwhile data encrypted by modern standards remains open to post-quantum threats. "What we're using right now as end-to-end encryption...is secure now, but people can intercept them and steal encrypted data," he says.

"Once they have access to a quantum computer, they can decrypt them, so confidentiality is threatened in retrospect, because whatever is considered confidential now can be decrypted later on."

Kaafarani also perceives an issue with the current attitudes to remediating cyberattacks, which he likens to applying a band-aid to a repeating problem.

SEE: SSL Certificate Best Practices Policy (TechRepublic Premium)

"That's why we started PQShield to fill in this gap, to lead the way to a smooth and secure transition to the quantum era. There is a real opportunity here to get things right from the beginning."

The startup recently completed a 5.5m funding round led by VC Firm Kindred Capital and has now secured German engineering company Bosch as its first OEM customer. While the exact details of the deal are still under wraps, Kaafarani says the deal is indicative of the threats businesses are beginning to identify as the age of quantum computing approaches.

"Their hardware may be built to last, but right now, their security isn't," he says.

"If you're designing a car that's going to go on the roads in the next three years, if you're doing security by design, you should be thinking of the next security standards: not the standards that are valid now, but the standards that will be valid in the next five, 10, 15 years," he says.

"Future-proofing is an imperative, just as it is for the banks and agencies that hold so much of our sensitive data."

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The future of encryption: Getting ready for the quantum computer attack - TechRepublic

Quantum computers promise to be game-changers in fields where there are enormously complex calculations to be carried out. Hoping to use quantum computing to address one of humanitys biggest problems climate change investigators from Microsoft Research and ETH Zurich have developed a quantum algorithm they say is able to simulate catalytic processes extremely quickly. In doing so, they claim that it could be used to find an efficient method for carrying out carbon fixation, cutting down on carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by turning it into useful compounds.

At present, synthetic catalytic processes are discovered using laborious trial-and-error lab experiments. Computer simulations are much faster, but modern computers have a difficult job calculating the properties of very complex molecules. By contrast, Microsofts quantum catalytic simulation algorithm reportedly beats existing state-of-the-art algorithms by 10 times; boding well for the transformational possibilities of using quantum computing as a cornerstone of future chemistry.

Our unique approach pushes the boundaries to deliver the promise of quantum computing and to create unprecedented possibilities for our world, Matthias Troyer, distinguished scientist at Microsoft Research, told Digital Trends. Quantum computing is redefining what is possible with technology, creating unprecedented possibilities to solve humanitys most complex challenges. Microsoft is committed to turning the impossible into reality in a responsible way that brings the best solutions to humanity and our planet.

Troyer explained that the advancements in algorithms gained from this research will serve as a springboard for future work. Microsoft is hoping that it will be able to work alongside the chemistry community to find new ways for quantum computers to help develop new chemical processes, molecules, and, eventually someday, materials. The research is available to read via Microsofts blog.

This isnt the first promising quantum algorithm Digital Trends has covered this month. Recently we wrote about a quantum algorithm that could help revolutionize disease diagnosis. However, like all quantum algorithms, it is going to rely on quantum computers advancing sufficiently in order for researchers to be able to gain the most benefit from it. The hardware this will require is another topic Microsoft discusses in the research paper on this work.

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Microsofts plan to scrub carbon out of the atmosphere? Quantum computers - Yahoo! Voices

Many videos describing quantum computers try to distill and oversimplify everything. Thoughty's takes its time and gives more historical and theoretical context than most.

Because it does take a while to get into the subject, here's a shorter explainer by MIT:

Today's computers use bitsa stream of electrical or optical pulses representing1s or0s. Everything from your tweets and e-mails to your iTunes songs and YouTube videos are essentially long strings of these binary digits.

Quantum computers, on the other hand, usequbits, whichare typically subatomic particles such as electrons or photons. Generating and managing qubits is a scientific and engineering challenge. Some companies, such as IBM, Google, and Rigetti Computing, use superconducting circuits cooled to temperatures colder than deep space. Others, like IonQ, trap individual atoms in electromagnetic fields on a silicon chip in ultra-high-vacuum chambers. In both cases, the goal is to isolate the qubits in a controlled quantum state.

The processing power possible through these controlled qubits will make today's fastest computers look positively archaic.

Image: YouTube / Thoughty2

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This simple explainer tackles the complexity of quantum computing - Boing Boing

This stunning image captured last year by physicists at the University of Glasgow in Scotland is the first-ever photo of quantum entanglement - a phenomenon so strange, physicist Albert Einstein famously described it as 'spooky action at a distance'.

It might not look like much, but just stop and think about it for a second: this fuzzy grey image was the first time we'd seen the particle interaction that underpins the strange science of quantum mechanics and forms the basis of quantum computing.

Quantum entanglement occurs when two particles become inextricably linked, and whatever happens to one immediately affects the other, regardless of how far apart they are. Hence the 'spooky action at a distance' description.

This particular photo shows entanglement between two photons - two light particles. They're interacting and - for a brief moment - sharing physical states.

Paul-Antoine Moreau, first author of the paper wherein the image was unveiled back in July 2019, told the BBC the image was "an elegant demonstration of a fundamental property of nature".

To capture the incredible photo, Moreau and a team of physicists created a system that blasted out streams of entangled photons at what they described as 'non-conventional objects'.

The experiment actually involved capturing four images of the photons under four different phase transitions. You can see the full image below:

(Moreau et al., Science Advances, 2019)

What you're looking at here is actually a composite of multiple images of the photons as they go through a series of four phase transitions.

The physicists split the entangled photons up and ran one beam through a liquid crystal material known as -barium borate, triggering four phase transitions.

At the same time they captured photos of the entangled pair going through the same phase transitions, even though it hadn't passed through the liquid crystal.

You can see the setup below: The entangled beam of photons comes from the bottom left, one half of the entangled pair splits to the left and passes through the four phase filters. The others that go straight ahead didn't go through the filters, but underwent the same phase changes.

(Moreau et al., Science Advances, 2019)

The camera was able to capture images of these at the same time, showing that they'd both shifted the same way despite being split. In other words, they were entangled.

While Einstein made quantum entanglement famous, the late physicist John Stewart Bell helped define quantum entanglement and established a test known as 'Bell inequality'. Basically, if you can break Bell inequality, you can confirm true quantum entanglement.

"Here, we report an experiment demonstrating the violation of a Bell inequality within observed images," the team wrote in Science Advances.

"This result both opens the way to new quantum imaging schemes ... and suggests promise for quantum information schemes based on spatial variables."

The research was published in Science Advances.

A version of this article was first published in July 2019.

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Looking Back on The First-Ever Photo of Quantum Entanglement - ScienceAlert

In a chapter of the Modern CTO podcast, Ripples CTO, David Schwartz, expressed concerns about the development of quantum computers. Ripples CTO believes this technology is a threat to the security of Bitcoin, XRP, and cryptocurrencies. This is primarily because the consensus algorithms behind cryptocurrencies rely on conventional cryptography, as Schwartz stated:

From the point of view of someone who is building systems based on conventional cryptography, quantum computing is a risk. We are not solving problems that need powerful computing like payments and liquidity the work that the computers do is not that incredibly complicated, but because it relies on conventional cryptography, very fast computers present a risk to the security model that we use inside the ledger.

Algorithms like SHA-2 and ECDSA (elliptic curve cryptography) are sort of esoteric things deep in the plumbing but if they were to fail, the whole system would collapse. The systems ability to say who owns Bitcoin or who owns XRP or whether or not a particular transaction is authorized would be compromised().

Ripples CTO said that Ripple is trying to prepare for the emergence of quantum computers. Therefore, they are determining when the algorithms mentioned will no longer be reliable. Ripples CTO estimates that in the next 8-10 years, quantum computers will begin to pose a threat, as Schwartz further stated:

I think we have at least eight years. I have very high confidence that its at least a decade before quantum computing presents a threat, but you never know when there could be a breakthrough. Im a cautious and concerned observer, I would say.

The other fear would be if some bad actor, some foreign government, secretly had quantum computing way ahead of whats known to the public. Depending on your threat model, you could also say what if the NSA has quantum computing. Are you worried about the NSA breaking your payment system?

Despite the above, Ripples CTO made an optimistic conclusion and stated that even if there is a malicious actor with this technology, he will not use it against the average person. Therefore, Schwartz believes that most users have nothing to worry about:

While some people might really be concerned it depends on your threat model, if youre just an average person or an average company, youre probably not going to be a victim of this lets say hypothetically some bad actor had quantum computing that was powerful enough to break things, theyre probably not going to go after you unless you are a target of that type of actor.

As soon as its clear that theres a problem, these systems will probably be frozen until they can be fixed or improved. So, most people dont have to worry about it.

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Ripple CTO: Quantum computers will be a threat to Bitcoin and XRP - Crypto News Flash