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Hello and welcome to Thursday.

The daily rundown Between Tuesday and Wednesday, the number of Florida coronavirus cases increased by 5,143 (nearly 0.3 percent), to 2,021,656; active hospitalizations went down by 54 (1.8 percent), to 2,882 deaths of Florida residents rose by 30, to 32,850; 5,205,239 Floridians have received at least one dose of a vaccine.

Whos next? Former state Sen. Frank Artiles was arrested by Miami authorities last week for a scheme involving a hotly-contested state Senate race. Is there a broader federal investigation coming soon? Floridas 11 Democratic members of Congress certainly think one is warranted.

Dear AG Playbook has been told all 11 Democrats have signed a letter that will be sent Thursday morning to Attorney General Merrick Garland that maintains that a much wider probe is needed to look at dark money donors and sham candidates."

Last weeks action State Attorney Kathy Fernandez-Rundle in Miami announced charges against Artiles and Alex Rodriguez, a candidate who ran for a South Florida state senate seat. Artiles is accused of paying Alex Rodriguez to run as a no-party affiliated candidate against then-state Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez to siphon away votes in the election. Artiles alleged scheme likely helped flip the seat to Republicans.

3 races targeted POLITICO has previously reported that political committees funded by Proclivity, a mystery donor, pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into mailers to boost the candidacies of no-party affiliated candidates that did not campaign. The three races targeted, two in Miami and one in Seminole County, were the focus of intense campaigns funded by leadership from both parties. In each case, Republicans won and the mail pieces featured messaging generally used to target Democratic voters. Money apparently flowed in from an out-of-state UPS box.

From the letter shared with Playbook Based on the suspicious practices outlined in this letter, including the likelihood of several potential illegal interstate transfers of funds, we strongly believe that much greater scrutiny of this matter at the federal level is warranted. There are important unanswered questions regarding the original source of the money to fund this scheme, and whether the entity that provided the funding was in violation of any federal campaign finance laws or Internal Revenue Service codes. It is also a pressing public concern as to whether any fraud occurred in furtherance of a federal criminal conspiracy designed to influence the outcome of one or more elections.

Real fraud? The letter concludes that unlike the dangerous, baseless claims of voter fraud impacting the 2020 Election, in this case, evidence actually exists that a multi-state fraud conspiracy was committed against Floridas voters.

WHERE'S RON? Nothing official announced for Gov. DeSantis.

Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for Playbook? Get in touch: [emailprotected]

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Ocean Conservancy is working with you to protect the ocean from todays greatest global challenges. Were working in the places you care about to address the impacts of these threats from sea level rise, to water quality, and more. Together, we can create solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. Learn more.

STARTING LINE Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence lead latest poll for 2024 Republican presidential candidates, by Newsweeks Alia Slisco: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence hold commanding leads over other prominent Republicans in a new poll of potential party nominees for the 2024 presidential election. DeSantis was the top choice, with 17 percent of respondents supporting him, in the poll released Wednesday by GOP polling firm Echelon Insights. Pence was the runner-up with 16 percent support. Former President Donald Trump was not an available choice, with the poll asking which GOP candidate voters would prefer if Trump does not attempt to win a non-consecutive second term.

HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER Gaetz to New Hampshire to help raise money for fellow Republicans, by Fox News Paul Steinhauser: No. Hes not mulling a 2024 presidential run. But. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida is headed to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state of New Hampshire this summer, to help raise money for fellow Republicans. Multiple Republican sources in the Granite State told Fox News on Wednesday that the three-term representative and close ally of former President Trump will headline the Nashua Republican City Committees annual Steak Out fundraiser.

LAGGING Democrats outspent the GOP on Spanish-language ads in 2020, but it came late, by NBC News Suzanne Gamboa: When the Democratic political action committee Nuestro PAC sent election mailers in Florida featuring a photo of Kristin Urquiza who blamed President Donald Trump for her father's Covid-19 death 200 were returned with communist or socialist scrawled on them. The response underscores a blaring lesson from the 2020 election: By the time Democrats started paying attention to Latino voters in the state and spending money on them, Republicans had already embedded their message, linking Democrats and Joe Biden to socialism.

Unpersuaded "'This showed the damage had already been done. Latinos in Florida had made up their mind and the long-term organizing and misinformation campaign by Trump and the Republicans worked,' Nuestro PAC said in a report on 2020 Democratic Latino outreach that was made available to NBC News."

UH-OH, SOMEONE DIDNT FOLLOW THE SCRIPT Prison budget cuts lead to Florida Senate drama, by Miami Heralds Ana Ceballos: In a highly unusual mid-session budget fight, two key lawmakers on Wednesday openly feuded with Senate leadership and tried to derail the first draft of the chambers criminal justice budget. The dispute largely centered on $140 million in proposed budget cuts to the Department of Corrections that contemplates the closure of four state-run prisons, a plan that is devoid of specifics and had not been previously discussed by lawmakers. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, was so angered by the proposed reductions that he made a motion to vote down the entire criminal justice budget proposal.

BARGAINING AHEAD Florida House and Senate differ on school choice expansion, by POLITICOs Andrew Atterbury: House education leaders introduced a long-awaited school choice package on Wednesday that breaks in key ways from the Senates massive proposal, setting up what could be the biggest education policy clash of the session. The 61-page bill dropped by the Houses top education committee would merge voucher programs for special needs students with the budding Family Empowerment Scholarship and expand eligibility for the awards, provisions that are similar to those sought in the Senate. But the House bill is notably missing Senate priorities like sweeping changes to how private school scholarships are funded in the state budget and the creation of new education savings accounts.

FOR NEXT TIME Florida bill seeks to better plan for future pandemics, by Associated Press Brendan Farrington: A House committee approved a bill Wednesday to better prepare for public health emergencies, ranging from ensuring the state is well-stocked with personal protective equipment to allowing the governor more flexibility in spending state money to deal with a crisis. The bill approved by the House Pandemics & Public Emergencies Committee on a 14-4 vote also addresses how deaths are reported, would allow the Legislature to override a governors executive orders and seeks to better inform the public on state spending on its response and emergency orders.

TRUMP TOOK ACTION. THE LEGISLATURE WONT Florida bill to cap insulin costs is likely doomed. Heres why, by Tampa Bay Times Kirby Wilson: Rep. Melony Bell, R-Fort Meade, the sponsor of the House version of the insulin bill, said Wednesday she hasnt been able to get the bill moving in her chamber. Bell said shes gotten an idea why based on conversations with House leadership. We dont want to go against the insurance companies because we dont want to go against the free market, Bell said, summing up what she said was the sentiment of House leaders.

Action at federal level The government taking action to lower the cost of prescription drugs is a widely popular, bipartisan idea. Last year, President Donald Trumps administration capped insulin co-pays at $35 per month for some Medicare plans. At least 14 other states have capped insurance co-pays for insulin at $100 or less, the Diabetes Association notes.

THE MONEY SHIFT Despite housing shortage, Florida GOP leaders look to take dollars away, by Sarasota Herald-Tribunes John Kennedy: Despite a pandemic-fueled shortage of lower-cost housing in Florida, the Legislatures Republican leaders have agreed to pull most of the dollars out of the states affordable housing fund and steer it to other, favored programs. House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, and Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, would take two-thirds of the $423 million now available for housing and divide it between a wastewater grants program and another to help cities deal with sea level rise.

CLEARS FIRST STOP Florida Senate panel advances bill that limits police chokeholds, by POLITICOs Giulia Heyward: In the aftermath of George Floyds killing last summer, Florida lawmakers are moving forward with legislation that aims to limit police officers' use of chokeholds. If enacted, Democratic State Sen. Jason Pizzos SB 1970 would push police departments to provide training that bars officers from using chokeholds except in deadly force situations. It also makes implicit bias training mandatory for all law enforcement agencies, and goes as far as to require a written policy from each agency affirming its officers duty to use these tactics when making arrests.

WHO CARES ABOUT VOTERS Florida port regulation fight narrows, skeptics remain, by POLITICOs Matt Dixon: A contentious fight over regulation of Floridas ports is entering its final stages, with supporters trying so far unsuccessfully to narrow legislation to win support of opponents, which includes the states powerful Florida Ports Council. The bill, FL SB426 (21R), as originally written preempted local governments from regulating sea ports. That prompted a backlash from both the port industry and supporters of a trio of voter-approved Key West ballot measures that limited the size of cruise ships that could dock and the number of daily cruise ship passengers that can visit the city daily.... After a round of amendments, the Senate bill now would no longer allow local governments to pass referenda negatively restricting maritime commerce, and does not permit ports run by cities or special districts from restricting maritime commerce.

Florida Senate resolution condemns white supremacy, by The Associated Press Brendan Farrington

At the bottom: Efforts to help Floridas jobless get boost, by Spectrum News Pete Reinwald

First Amendment advocates decry creep toward denying public information to Floridians, by Florida Phoenixs Michael Moline

A BIT SMOOTHER Even as the age comes down, getting a vaccine isnt such a madhouse anymore, by Sun Sentinels Andrew Boryga, Wells Dusenbury, Austen Erblat and Eric Chokey: As Florida opens up COVID-19 vaccines to younger groups, they are unlikely to encounter the chaos that roiled people 65 and over when the vaccine campaign began. Seniors wrestled with overwhelmed phone lines, crashed websites and hours-long waits in line in January. But fears that the trouble would return as the eligible age was reduced have not materialized.

SECRET ORDERS? Backroom vaccine politics block jail inmates from getting COVID shots, Palm Beach County rep says, by Sun Sentinels Skyler Swisher: "Efforts to provide COVID-19 shots to jail inmates in Palm Beach County have been thwarted by backroom vaccine politics with no timetable being given for when the vulnerable population will be offered protection against the deadly virus, a state representative said Wednesday. State Rep. Omari Hardy said hes been trying for weeks to get county officials to vaccinate inmates at Palm Beach Countys jail who meet the states eligibility guidelines."

WAITING FOR ALL CLEAR Cruise industry begs CDC: Let us sail by July, by Sun Sentinels Ron Hurtibise: Major cruise lines are eager to resume operations from U.S. ports, and theyre calling on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make it happen by July. The early-July timeframe is in line with President Bidens forecast for when the United States will be closer to normal, according to the statement released Wednesday by the industrys trade group, the Cruise Lines International Association. The association is asking the CDC to lift an order issued in October called a Framework for Conditional Sailing Order that required the industry to wait for further guidance before resuming cruises.

Workers go door to door in Jacksonville to sign up people for COVID-19 shots, by News4Jaxs Kelly Wiley

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BALLARD ADDS TOP WALSH AIDE (FROM POLITICO INFLUENCE) Eugene OFlaherty, most recently corporation counsel for the city of Boston and a top aide to now-Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, has joined Ballard Partners as a partner as the firm looks to expand its congressional practice and ties to the new administration, giving the Florida-based firm run by a former fundraiser to President Donald Trump increased clout with the powerful Massachusetts delegation and the Biden administrations newest Cabinet member.

Adding the Dems Ballard, which became one of the most powerful firms on K Street under Trump, has rapidly staffed up with more Democrats this year. Courtney Whitney, a top Democratic fundraiser who was a consultant for the pro-Biden super PAC Priorities USA, was brought on as a partner, two more Democratic lobbyists moved into its D.C. office, and Rep. Al Lawsons former chief of staff was hired. Former Florida Rep. Robert Wexler, a Democrat, and Jamie Rubin, who worked with President Joe Biden in the Senate, also work at Ballard.

WHATS IN YOUR WALLET? Trumpworlds next target: Building a dark-money machine, by POLITICOs Alex Isenstadt: Major donors are convening at former President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort next month for a two-day gathering to talk about what went wrong in 2020 and to build a big-dollar network to take back power. The summit is being sponsored by the Conservative Partnership Institute, an organization led by Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). Trump is slated to headline the opening-night dinner, and the agenda includes an array of conservative luminaries and former Trump administration officials such as Stephen Miller, Russ Vought and Ric Grenell.

MORE DETAILS New evidence suggests alliance between Oath Keepers, Proud Boys ahead of Jan. 6, by POLITICOs Kyle Cheney: Kelly Meggs, the Florida leader of the Oath Keepers, said in private messages obtained by prosecutors that hed been in touch repeatedly with Proud Boys leadership in particular. He said he had worked out a strategy to confront potential violence from antifa, a loosely organized collection of left-wing extremists. Meggs has been charged along with nine others with conspiring to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election. This week I organized an alliance between Oath Keepers, Florida 3%ers, and Proud Boys, Meggs wrote in a Dec. 19 message to an associate via Facebook. We have decided to work together and shut this shit down.

Seminole man, described as Proud Boy associate, arrested in Capitol riot, by Tampa Bay Times Dan Sullivan

MASS SHOOTINGS SHOULD NOT BE NORMAL Stoneman Douglas community grieves for Atlanta and Boulder victims, renews push for gun safety, by Sun Sentinels Anthony Man: Survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, and family members of victims, joined Wednesday with half a dozen members of Congress from South Florida, Georgia and Colorado to mourn the victims of the nations two most recent mass shootings and renew their push for gun safety legislation. With Americans hopeful as the nation emerges from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch said, we were all looking forward to the moment when our lives would return to normalcy. This is not what we meant. Mass shootings should not be normal.

A message from Ocean Conservancy:

Florida has an iconic natural environment. It is surrounded by and dependent on clean water. From the Panhandle to the Treasure Coast to the Florida Keys, youre never more than 60 miles from the ocean. Floridas coasts serve as treasured sanctuaries and economic engines places to enjoy as well as earn a living and build a life. With offices in St. Petersburg and Miami, Ocean Conservancy is actively working in these treasured Floridian places to address the impacts of todays greatest global challenges from sea level rise, to water quality, and more. Together, we can create solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. Learn more.

Police: Florida mom shows up to daughters school wearing boxing glove, fights child, gets arrested, by First Coast News: [Edith] Riddle had just exited the school with her own daughter after a meeting with the vice principal on campus, according to the report. Rather than exiting the campus directly, the daughter walked out of her way through the cafeteria to engage the victim in a fight, the report says. Riddle's daughter pushed the victim to the ground and threw some punches before the suspect also joined in punching the victim, who was lying on the ground, according to witnesses. A witness also said Riddle appeared to have a boxing glove attached to her left hand, according to the arrest report.

Pier 1 cougher says hate messages, harassment have destroyed familys life, by Orlando Sentinels Tiffini Theisen: A Florida woman who may get jail time after she was accused of intentionally coughing in a cancer patients face wants a judge to consider the backlash she and her family have endured since last summers incident in a Pier 1. Debra Jo Hunter was shown in a June 25 video at the Jacksonville Town Center walking up to a woman and deliberately coughing in her face after making a lewd gesture toward the camera. Hunter pleaded guilty Monday and could get up to 60 days in jail, according to News4Jax.

BIRTHDAYS: Palm Beach County Commissioner Maria Sachs former State Rep. John Cortes

Want to make an impact? POLITICO Florida has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Sunshine State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause youre promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness amongst this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: [emailprotected]

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Florida Dems seek DOJ probe into sham candidates Ballard adds another Democrat to D.C. team Jousting in Senate over prison budget cuts - Politico

In California, Governor Gavin Newsom is already facing attacks from Republicans and a fellow Democrat as he heads into a recall election later this year. Meanwhile, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is trying to balance complicated state and local politics in the lead-up to his own reelection bid this fall. Murphy has already seen the effects of the Biden administrations national strategy for vaccine production and other pandemic-mitigation measures, he told me. Murphy isnt focused yet on his campaign or how this or other issues might play into it, he added, but he was proud to tick through the progress his state has made since the lockdown began. More than 900,000 of New Jerseys 1.3 million children are now participating in at least some form of in-person education, and Murphy hopes to get all students back to school in person, Monday through Friday, by September 1. For the interim, Murphys administration has provided students with hundreds of thousands of computers for remote learning. (A year ago, 231,000 New Jersey students didnt have access to a computer. As of this month, that number is down to just 39 students statewide, according to the Murphy administration.)

But New Jersey also hosts some of the nations most intractable fights over reopeningmost notably in Montclair, in the northern part of the state, where teachers have gone to court to fight against returning to their classrooms.

Murphy is a father of four, with two children still in high school, so he said he feels the impact of the school-reopening battle at home. Is your kids education at or near the top of any mom or dads list of things that are important to them in life? Absolutely. Theres no two ways about thatand its more so in the pandemic, he told me. He said hes confident hell have good news by the fall. Some states compete by having the lowest taxes. Some states compete by having no capacity limits in their restaurants or no requirements to wear face masks, he said. We compete with the No. 1 public-education system in America, and we intend to keep it that way.

In the meantime, the standoffs around the country among politicians, parents, and teachers have the potential to fuel voter backlash. Parents who want their kids back in the classroom and on the playground are unlikely to be satisfied by the addition of critical race theory to curricula or the removal of Lincolns and Washingtons names from schools. Trump spoke to many Americans anger about school closures, Cooper told me. Its not hard to see how Republicans other than Trump could capitalize on that anger.

The Biden administrations goal is to have the majority of K8 students in at least some form of in-person school by the end of next month, Cardona told NBC News last week. Cooper isnt impressed. Everyone involved could do more if they wanted to, he said. The CDCs decision to reduce the six-foot social-distancing restriction in schools to three feet, which will facilitate having children in classrooms, is a change he was hoping for. (Weingarten says shes not yet ready to say that schools should accept that change.) But theres more to do. He has his own children on a waitlist for a Catholic school that has been open for months, and he said he would eagerly move his children there if given the chance. Weingartens response on the CDC change, he told me, shows that nothings ever going to be good enough. Theyre only willing to listen to the science that allows them to give an excuse to the large districts, which remain closed.

If Jill Biden, Randi Weingarten, and [CDC Director] Rochelle Walensky said tomorrow, Schools should open five days a week as soon as possible, they would be open in a few weeks, Cooper said. They have incredible power, yet they act powerless when theyre asked for support.

More here:
Democrats Are Failing the Schools Test - The Atlantic

Quantum computing is a radically new way to store and process information based on the principles of quantum mechanics. While conventional computers store information in binary bits that are either 0s or 1s, quantum computers store information in quantum bits, or qubits. A qubit can be both 0 and 1 at the same time, and a series of qubits together remember many different things simultaneously.

Everyone agrees on the huge computational power this technology may bring about, but why are we still not there yet? To understand the challenges in this field and its potential solutions, we recently interviewed Shruti Puri, PhD, who works at the frontier of this exciting field. Puri is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Physics at Yale University, and a Physical Sciences & Engineering Finalist of the 2020 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists, recognized for her remarkable theoretical discoveries in quantum error correction that may pave the way for robust quantum computing technologies.

What is the main challenge you are addressing in quantum computing?

Thanks to recent advances in research and development, there are already small to mid-sized quantum computers made available by big companies. But these quantum computers have not been able to implement any practical applications such as drug and materials discovery. The reason is that quantum computers at this moment are extremely fragile, and even very small noise from their working environment can very quickly destroy the delicate quantum states. As it is almost impossible to completely isolate the quantum states from the environment, we need a way to correct quantum states before they are destroyed.

At a first glance, quantum error correction seems impossible. Due to the measurement principle of quantum mechanics, we cannot directly probe a quantum state to check if there was an error in it or not, because such operations will destroy the quantum state itself.

Fortunately, in the 1990s, people found indirect ways to faithfully detect and correct errors in quantum states. They are, however, at a cost of large resource overheads. If one qubit is affected by noise, we have to use at least five additional qubits to correct this error. The more errors we want to correct, the larger number of additional qubits it will consume. A lot of research efforts, including my own, are devoted to improving quantum error correction techniques.

What is your discovery? How will this discovery help solve the challenge you mention above?

In recent years, I have been interested in new qubit designs that have some in-built protection against noise. In particular, I developed the Kerr-cat qubit, in which one type of quantum error is automatically suppressed by design. This reduces the total number of quantum errors by half! So, quantum computers that adopt Kerr-cat require far fewer physical qubits for error correction than the other quantum computers.

Kerr-cat is not the only qubit with this property, but what makes the Kerr-cat special is that it is possible to maintain this protection while a user tries to modify the quantum state in a certain non-trivial way. As a comparison, for ordinary qubits, the act of the user modifying the state automatically destroys the protection. Since its discovery, the Kerr-cat has generated a lot of interest in the community and opened up a new direction for quantum error correction.

As a theoretician, do you collaborate with experimentalists? How are these synergized efforts helping you?

Yes, I do collaborate quite closely with experimentalists. The synergy between experiments and theory is crucial for solving the practical challenges facing quantum information science. Sometimes an experimental observation or breakthrough will provide a new tool for a theorist with which they can explore or model new quantum effects. Other times, a new theoretical prediction will drive experimental progress.

At Yale, I have the privilege to work next to the theoretical group of Steve Girvin and the experimental groups of Michel Devoret and Rob Schoelkopf, who are world leaders in superconducting quantum information processing. The theoretical development of the Kerr-cat qubit was actually a result of trying to undo a bug in the experiment. Members of Michels group also contributed to the development of this theory. What is more, Michels group first experimentally demonstrated the Kerr-cat qubit. It was just an amazing feeling to see this theory come to life in the lab!

Are there any other experimental developments that you are excited about?

I am very excited about a new generation of qubits that are being developed in several other academic groups, which have some inherent protection against noise. Kerr-cat is one of them, along with Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill qubit, cat-codes, binomial codes, 0 qubit, etc. Several of these designs were developed by theorists in the early 2000s, and were not considered to be practical. But with experimental progress, these have now been demonstrated and are serious contenders for practical quantum information processing. In the coming years, the field of quantum error correction is going to be strongly influenced by the capabilities that will be enabled by these new qubit designs. So, I really look forward to learning how the experiments progress.

Interested in the latest experimental developments in quantum computer design and architecture? Register for the webinar Scaling up: New Advances in Building Quantum Computers, hosted by the New York Academy of Sciences on April 7. Featured speakers of this webinar include Andrew Houck, PhD, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University and Deputy Director of the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage, and Christopher Monroe, PhD, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics at Duke University and Director of the Duke Quantum Center.

Read the original post:
The Route to Robust Quantum Computing: Interview with Shruti Puri | The New York Academy of Sciences - The New York Academy of Sciences

Millions without power; stores and banks shut down; vital services running on emergency generators if at all; lines of hapless people waiting for food and water. The experience that the state of Texas underwent this February will be only a preview of what we would all face in the event of a major cyberattack on our ever-vulnerable energy grid.

In the case of an attack by a future quantum computer, with its unprecedented power to decrypt existing encryption systems, the shutdown could be the most catastrophic disaster our country has ever experienced. Using data supplied by the global econometrics firm Oxford Economics, our researchers at Hudson Institutes Quantum Alliance Initiative have been working on a quantitative study of a future quantum cyberattack on the grid.Our preliminary data shows that protection of our power networks, needs to be an urgent national priority.

Experts have been warning us for years about how vulnerable the national power grid is to attacks by malicious actors like Russia, China, and Iran. The Department of Energy has a major task force, the North American Energy Resiliency Model (NAERM), looking into how to protect our energy grid from natural disasters but also terrorism and cyber assaults.

But a quantum computer attack would be far more protracted and far worse in its effects.Indeed, the smarter the grid is, with more supervision and control by computers, the more vulnerable it would be.

This is because a large-scale quantum computer in the future will be able to break into any encryption system currently protecting the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition computers that oversee the power grid.The structural design of a standard SCADA industrial control system relies on Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). These are the microprocessors that communicate and interact with field devices such as valves, pumps, and Human Machine Interface (HMI) software application that presents information to an operator or user about the state of an on-going process.That communication data is then routed from the processors to the SCADA computers, where the software displays and interprets the data allowing for operators to analyze and react to system events.

The danger is that a quantum computer will be able to gain access to these major nerve centers of the grid as if the attacker were a bona fide operator.This will allow the attacker to spread malware undetected throughout the grid, which will severely hinder response and recovery for weeks or months.

The notion of resilience in the nations power grid becomes obsolete.And instead of triggering a complete shutdown, a quantum intrusion can lead to sudden inexplicable power losses and sudden power surges that can melt down transformers and render entire power plants inoperable.

In short, the damage will be similar to that of an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) attack terrorism experts have feared for yearsbut stealthier, more unpredictable, and more protracted.

Even if the nations nuclear power plants are insulated from such an attack, the economic costs would be catastrophic.

How bad could the damage be?Our study indicates the direct economic cost of this quantum-led electricity outage would be over $8.6 trillion, with a disruptive impact extending over six fiscal quarters. Everything from financial markets to manufacturing and healthcare would be disrupted, for weeks or even months. Looking at the cost in terms of GDP at Risk or the integrated difference between the forecasted GDP growth for the economy and the estimations for GDP growth under the attack scenario, we have found that the total economic loss could extend over eight years or more at a cost of more than $20 trillion-roughly equivalent to the loss of an entire years output for the U.S. economy.

These numbers do not include the impact on Canadas economy, which is part of the North American Power Grid, or the global impact of a U.S. economy in a powerless free fall. Ironically, if Texas ignores the advice of Bill Gates and others that it join the national grid, it could be the one part of the country to emerge from such a disaster relatively unscathed.

What are the steps necessary to avoid such a scenario, and the devastating economic loss such an attack would entail?

First, we need to incentivize power companies to speed up protections for SCADA systems against conventional cyberattacks on the grid as well as future quantum ones. This means moving on deploying post-quantum cryptography, i.e. encryption based on algorithms that will withstand quantum intrusion, and quantum cryptography, i.e. encryption using quantum random number generation for its keys, to secure networks from hackers.

Second, we need to develop a national strategic reserve of Large Power Transformers (LPTs) that can be deployed in case of cyberattacks that specifically target LPTs, the essential sinews of the North American Power Grid.

Third, we need closer cooperation with Canada in working together on that grid, in order to mitigate the risks of attackwhether conventional today or quantum-based tomorrowas well as the damage done by natural disasters including climate change.

In the end, avoiding a Texas-like national shutdown of our power grid will be a matter of spending billions to offset the risk of losing trillions.Thats not a bad bargain when our entire economy, and economies around the world, are at risk.

Here is the original post:
Texas Warned Us What Quantum Computers Will Do To The Power Grid - Forbes

Schematic of the four-qubit quantum processor made using semiconductor manufacturing technology. Credit: Nico Hendrickx (QuTech)

The heart of any computer, its central processing unit, is built using semiconductor technology, which is capable of putting billions of transistors onto a single chip. Now, researchers from the group of Menno Veldhorst at QuTech, a collaboration between TU Delft and TNO, have shown that this technology can be used to build a two-dimensional array of qubits to function as a quantum processor. Their work, a crucial milestone for scalable quantum technology, was published today (March 24, 2021) in Nature.

Quantum computers have the potential to solve problems that are impossible to address with classical computers. Whereas current quantum devices hold tens of qubits the basic building block of quantum technology a future universal quantum computer capable of running any quantum algorithm will likely consist of millions to billions of qubits. Quantum dot qubits hold the promise to be a scalable approach as they can be defined using standard semiconductor manufacturing techniques. Veldhorst: By putting four such qubits in a two-by-two grid, demonstrating universal control over all qubits, and operating a quantum circuit that entangles all qubits, we have made an important step forward in realizing a scalable approach for quantum computation.

Electrons trapped in quantum dots, semiconductor structures of only a few tens of nanometres in size, have been studied for more than two decades as a platform for quantum information. Despite all promises, scaling beyond two-qubit logic has remained elusive. To break this barrier, the groups of Menno Veldhorst and Giordano Scappucci decided to take an entirely different approach and started to work with holes (i.e. missing electrons) in germanium. Using this approach, the same electrodes needed to define the qubits could also be used to control and entangle them. No large additional structures have to be added next to each qubit such that our qubits are almost identical to the transistors in a computer chip, says Nico Hendrickx, graduate student in the group of Menno Veldhorst and first author of the article. Furthermore, we have obtained excellent control and can couple qubits at will, allowing us to program one, two, three, and four-qubit gates, promising highly compact quantum circuits.

Menno Veldhorst and Nico Hendrickx standing next to the setup hosting the germanium quantum processor. Credit: Marieke de Lorijn (QuTech)

After successfully creating the first germanium quantum dot qubit in 2019, the number of qubits on their chips has doubled every year. Four qubits by no means makes a universal quantum computer, of course, Veldhorst says. But by putting the qubits in a two-by-two grid we now know how to control and couple qubits along different directions. Any realistic architecture for integrating large numbers of qubits requires them to be interconnected along two dimensions.

Demonstrating four-qubit logic in germanium defines the state-of-the-art for the field of quantum dots and marks an important step toward dense, and extended, two-dimensional semiconductor qubit grids. Next to its compatibility with advanced semiconductor manufacturing, germanium is also a highly versatile material. It has exciting physics properties such as spin-orbit coupling and it can make contact to materials like superconductors. Germanium is therefore considered as an excellent platform in several quantum technologies. Veldhorst: Now that we know how to manufacture germanium and operate an array of qubits, the germanium quantum information route can truly begin.

Reference: A four-qubit germanium quantum processor by Nico W. Hendrickx, William I. L. Lawrie, Maximilian Russ, Floor van Riggelen, Sander L. de Snoo, Raymond N. Schouten, Amir Sammak, Giordano Scappucci and Menno Veldhorst, 24 March 2021, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03332-6

Funding: The research is supported by NWO, the Dutch Research Council.

See more here:
Crucial Milestone for Scalable Quantum Technology: 2D Array of Semiconductor Qubits That Functions as a Quantum Processor - SciTechDaily