The US, China, and Europe lead in quantum computing development, with key players including IBM, Google, and Intel.

China has invested an estimated $15.3 billion in quantum research, making it a major competitor to the US.

The UK government has allocated £2.5 billion for quantum research.

Australia is a world leader in the quantum computing gold rush, with nearly a billion dollars in government investment.

Canada is investing $40 million in Xanadu Quantum Technologies to build the world's first photonic-based, fault-tolerant quantum computer.

Germany is investing at least €2 billion in quantum computer development to stay competitive in the global artificial intelligence race.

The European Union is investing heavily in quantum research to lead the quantum computing ecosystem.

Global investment in quantum computing has topped $35.5 billion.

Quantum computers are expected to significantly impact industries like cryptography, drug discovery, and optimization.

The development of quantum computers poses significant security risks, including breaking current encryption methods.

Companies and governments are investing in post-quantum cryptography, quantum key distribution, and quantum networking to mitigate risks.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology will release post-quantum encryption standards to protect against quantum-enabled cyberattacks.

Adoption of quantum-safe solutions is expected to succeed by the 2030s to 2040s.

Quantum computing has vast potential applications and is expected to significantly impact various industries and aspects of life.

The future of computing will likely involve a symbiotic relationship between quantum and classical systems.

The security community is developing post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to withstand quantum threats.

Post-quantum cryptography is a software-based solution compatible with existing infrastructures.

The migration to quantum-safe cryptography will significantly impact every modern business.

The US, China, and Europe lead in quantum computing development, with key players including IBM, Google, and Intel.

Title:

Content: FINANCIAL TIMES
Quantum computing.
Is it time to get serious about it?
The old joke that quantum computing is the technology of the future — and will remain so forever — is no longer funny.
The engineering challenges of building a quantum computer powerful enough to fulfill its extraordinary theoretical promise remain enormous.
But early prototypes are evolving rapidly and the future may come faster than expected.
Every data-rich body should start thinking about how to move into a quantum world, as the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology is set to release encryption standards for the post-quantum era next year.
Quantum computers, which exploit the frightening behavior of subatomic physics, operate differently from conventional computers, expanding the range of possible solutions to many problems.
Some companies are exploring the potential of hybrid methods, combining the current capabilities of primitive quantum computers and their classical counterparts to improve port logistics, airline schedules, grocery delivery, and TV ad programming, for example.
Alan Baratz, CEO of DWave, an American quantum computing company, said: “Quantum has become real today.
But serious threats to quantum computing may emerge faster than its potential.
Security experts warn of the dangers of QDay, when a quantum computer may be able to hack into the RSA encryption system, widely used by tech companies, banks and governments in their data.
Earlier this month, the heads of the intelligence agency Five Eyes, which included the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, warned of the dangers of China ’ s activities in quantum computing, artificial intelligence and synthetic biology.
Ken McCallum, director general of MI5, said: “If you ’ re close to the latest technologies, you may not be interested in geopolitics, but geopolitics is interested in you. ”
Since 1994, when mathematician Peter Shore wrote an algorithm that could run on an as-yet-uninvented quantum computer to hack the RSA system, security experts have been concerned about the world ’ s digital secrets.
It may take another decade (or more) before we have a quantum computer stable enough to run Shore ’ s algorithm, but we can never be sure when that day will come.
However, this is one of those rare technological fields, when the solution anticipates the problem.
Since 2016, the US National Institute has been ordering and evaluating anti-cryptography.
Four approved standards will be released next year, which will then be replaced by other agencies around the world.
According to Ilham Kashefi, chief scientist at the UK ’ s National Centre for Quantum Computing, it would be “very worrying ” if any organisation held sensitive data that was not really prepared for the threat posed by QDay.
Speaking at the Ceftaid summit earlier this month, she said: “You should be very concerned. ”
One concern, Kashefi said, is that adversaries can harness data today and decrypt it later when quantum computers have evolved.
That may not matter if the old data hacked are daily supermarket sales records.
But it will be different if the data contains health records or sensitive personal information.
Switching from one crypto system to another across thousands of organizations will take years to implement.
That ’ s why internet experts are urging companies to start thinking now about how to adopt the NIST crypto standard.
The transition to a quantum resistant world would be a win-win for some cybersecurity companies.
That ’ s what BQ Shield, an Oxford-based startup that recently held an expert conference to examine whether NIST ’ s mathematical drafts can work in the “bad ” hardware world.
The good news, according to Ali al-Qafarani, founder of BQ Shield, is that it can.
He said to me, “Is there a perfect security solution at all?
He never exists.
"But my personal view is that these schemes are very secure, powerful and very difficult to penetrate, whether on a classical or quantum computer."
When I spoke with Shore earlier this year, he predicted that the quantum computer needed to run his algorithm might still be several decades away.
But in the meantime, he composed a poem to explain the quantum puzzle:
"If the computers you are building are quantitative,
Spies from all factions will want it.
All our symbols will fail.
They'll read all of our e-mails.
Until we get quantum cryptography, and scare them with its power. ”
Publish it.
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What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

China has invested an estimated $15.3 billion in quantum research, making it a major competitor to the US.

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Content: Chandeliers, ‘qubits’ and Schrödinger’s cat: Inside the bizarre world of quantum computing

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Chandeliers, ‘qubits’ and Schrödinger’s cat: Inside the bizarre world of quantum computing

In the quantum realm, the laws of physics are different. Now its mind-bending tech could soon transform our lives. How does it work?

It was 2009, and a group of scientists had crowded around a tiny monitor in a Sydney physics laboratory. The team, led by electrical engineer Andrea Morello, held their collective breath and peered at a single flat line on the screen. Then, in the blink of an eye, the line changed: it was a series of blips, like a heartbeat. They’d hit paydirt. “When you see that symbol, you’re in the game,” recalls physicist Charles Tahan.

Welcome to the quantum world, a subatomic realm – yes, smaller than an atom – where the laws of physics are, well, different. The experiment made Morello and his team the first in the world to show that a quantum computer could be made using not diamonds, not the superconductor niobium, but everyday silicon. “To show you could do that, 100 different things had to go right,” says Tahan.

Quantum computing is one of the key technologies defining this century. Its proponents say it will do for computers what the car did to the horse and buggy. It will upend encryption and molecular biology. In theory, it could even possibly find cures for cancer. Australia is among the world leaders in a quantum computing gold rush, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saying his government is “serious about building a strong quantum ecosystem” and investing nearly a billion dollars.

Yet despite eye-watering outlays worldwide, quantum computing is still in its infancy, part of a mind-bending world that physicists are only beginning to fully grasp. What is it? And how will it make a difference to our lives?

How does a quantum computer work (and why did Alice in Wonderland have the jump on it?)

It’s often remarked that it looks like a beautiful chandelier, or a wedding cake. And IBM’s quantum computer, one of the world’s largest, is certainly an intriguing object, an intricate dome of golden wires and graceful tubes suspended from a ceiling.

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The part we can see, though, is really just the control and support system for a microchip (currently a version called Condor) buried deep inside. The glittering exoskeleton is there to keep its tiny heart as cold as possible – a hundred times colder than the coldest depths of space – and to feed information in and out, the process that makes it a “computer” and not just a science experiment.

The chip itself is smaller than a postage stamp, with several layers of circuitry and metal sandwiched in a tiny square, cooled to improve conductivity and to eliminate “noise”, the bugbear of many such devices. But even what we see here is not where the action happens. For that, we have to go deeper still, down into the chip and well beyond what’s visible through even the most powerful microscope, beyond the layers of individual atoms, into the atoms themselves.

‘The truth is the universe doesn’t run by the rules that we see every day – gravity, you bounce a ball and it falls. It runs on these other rules: quantum mechanics.’

In the subatomic realm of electrons, protons and photons, things happen very differently. Indeed, these tiny particles have no use for Newton’s laws of physics, nor even many of Einstein’s. “The truth,” says Tahan, “is the universe doesn’t run by the rules that we see every day – gravity, you bounce a ball and it falls. It runs on these other rules: quantum mechanics.”

Why these particles behave as they do in the quantum realm is a difficult concept to get your head around. Even Einstein resisted aspects of it, famously arguing that “God does not play dice with the Universe”. It was a misstep. “Because he didn’t believe in the completeness of quantum mechanics,” says Morello, “he lost a lot of productive years because he didn’t understand how it is possible that this thing is true.”

Many leading physicists investigated the concept from the early 1900s, including some familiar from popular culture today, notably Einstein and Neils Bohr (portrayed in Oppenheimer), Werner Heisenberg (whose name Walter White stole for his drug-chemist alter ego in Breaking Bad) and Viennese physicist Erwin Schrödinger, of the famous cat experiment (explained below).

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Lewis Carroll, meanwhile, may have had the jump on quantum physics with his ideas in the Alice books, as James Renner observed in The Wall Street Journal in 2015. “We speak of going down the wormhole into a mysterious world that defies Newtonian physics, where once Alice went down the rabbit hole into a mysterious world that had much the same effect. Now we speak of quantum particles being in two places at once or even Schrödinger’s cat being alive and dead at the same time, long after the Cheshire Cat’s grin was magically displaced from its body.”

The quantum realm has only truly begun to reveal itself to us relatively recently. In 1964, the Irish-born physicist John Bell published one of the most important theorems, which, according to Professor Andrew Whitaker in Physics World, “opened up the possibility of experimental philosophy, the study of what are normally thought of as philosophical issues in experiments. Not only do these experiments probe the deepest and most profound aspects of quantum theory, they also provide information on the fundamental nature of the universe.”

At the time, Bell’s theorem could not be tested in a lab. That would come in the late 1960s and early 1970s when experimentalists such as John Clauser began to show that the weirdness Bell had described on paper actually occurred in the real world. Which, at the time, was considered quite rude. One eminent physicist “was highly offended by my impertinent effort and told me that it was tantamount to professing a disbelief in quantum physics,” Clauser later recalled.

He and other apostates continued their work because he found some of the predictions “sufficiently bizarre that I could not accept them without seeing experimental proof”. Working with leftover lab equipment – “physics department scrap” – he went on to provide experimental evidence that refuted even Einstein’s theories. “I was very sad to see that my own experiment had proven Einstein wrong,” he said. Clauser would go on to win the 2022 Nobel Prize for Physics alongside Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger for their groundbreaking experiments with so-called “entangled” particles.

Quantum physicists still despair at the difficulties of explaining their weird world to outsiders. “Many writers fall back on boilerplate that makes physicists howl in agony,” wrote computer scientist Scott Aaronson in The New York Times in 2019. Unfortunately, says Gerard Milburn, a quantum physicist from the University of Queensland, “The quantum world lies beyond the reach of natural language.”

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But we’ll give it a go. Chiefly, particles in the quantum realm aren’t tied down to being in one place or state in the way bigger things are in the outside world, such as cats, which tend to be in one place at once. They obey different rules entirely. The first way to understand this oddness harks back to high-school science and how light can behave as both a particle and a wave. Photons – bursts of light – can act like ball bearings, with position and momentum. Yet light also behaves like a wave washing over a beach in a way that a ball bearing can’t. That’s a quantum physics party trick.

What is Schrödinger’s cat?

The most famous primer for quantum mechanics is the paradox of Schrödinger’s cat, a mind experiment devised by Schrödinger in 1935. A hypothetical cat goes into a box with a vial of poison gas, which has a 50-50 chance of killing it. You close the box and can’t see inside. So, without opening the box, you can’t know whether the poison has killed the cat or not. Therefore, posited Schrödinger, puss is neither dead nor alive but both – until you open the box.

In quantum mechanics, this state is called “superposition”. It’s impossible to describe properly without a background in higher-level mathematics, which we lack, but it generally means not knowing whether, say, an electron is over here, or over there, or – cat-like – in both places at the same time. Another way of looking at it is to visualise a coin spinning on its side. Until it stops and lands on one side or another, it’s not heads or tails but both.

At least, kind of.

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“Every explanation we give in lay terms is in some way wrong,” says Stephen Bartlett, a theoretical quantum physicist and director of the University of Sydney Nano Institute. “People often say a quantum superposition is in the value zero and the value one at the same time. That’s sort of right, and sort of not right.” Says Morello: “This is where language is failing us, right? If you’re trying to say that in plain English, it sounds really weird. But if you actually think about, you know, the mathematics of it, and the actual physical embodiment of that, it actually makes perfect sense.” Suffice to say, a real cat cannot find itself in “superposition”: this is a state that can exist only in the subatomic world.

How is this useful (and what’s a qubit)?

In a conventional computer, information is encoded as voltages that pass around the system thanks to millions of tiny transistors – essentially, gates or switches that turn on and off. A quantum computer is similar except that instead of using transistors as switches it uses subatomic particles, such as electrons or photons, that can have many more states than simply on or off, according to their position, momentum, spin direction and polarisation. Once harnessed – and there are many ways of doing that – these particles-as-switches are called “qubits”, a play on the word “bit”, the smallest unit of data that a computer can process and store.

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Information can be encoded on qubits in various ways: for his computers, Morello uses silicon and strong magnetic fields like those found in MRI machines. “The stuff that I build in my lab is actually a small silicon chip the size of a fingernail,” he says, “but the whole infrastructure around it is quite fancy. It’s a very powerful refrigerator that cools down the chip to [just] above absolute zero.

Critically, qubits can relate to other qubits in a state called “entanglement”. This enables quantum computers to perform multiple calculations simultaneously – which is their superpower. Schrödinger described entanglement as “the characteristic trait of quantum mechanics, the one that enforces its entire departure from classical lines of thought”. Sceptical Einstein called entanglement “spooky action at a distance”. Gerard Milburn says entanglement is great for building a computer “because if you want to have all these switches, having them strongly correlated is exactly what you want. And if you can control those correlations, you can do computation.”

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It’s these characteristics that have scientists and engineers excited. Not because quantum computers will necessarily take over from the conventional miracles we so rely on today but because they can do some particular things that transistor-based machines either struggle with or fail at completely. Today’s supercomputer might try to simulate molecular behaviour with “brute force”, says IBM’s quantum department. “But as it moves past the simplest, most straightforward molecules available, the supercomputer stalls. Quantum algorithms take a new approach to these sorts of complex problems, creating multidimensional computational spaces.”

‘Calculations that are completely impossible … would rapidly become possible on a quantum computer.’

This might include modelling how a drug might affect a virus, how new materials in aeroplanes might react to stress, or the exact process necessary to create a perfect chemical reaction.

“Calculations that are completely impossible – not just on present-day conventional computers but any conceivable future conventional computer – would rapidly become possible on a quantum computer,” says Andrew Doherty, professor of physics at Sydney University. “These are things where the application of that computer would be transformative to people’s lives without every home, you know, having a laptop quantum computer.”

Whether quantum computing will also revolutionise artificial intelligence is less certain. AI works by drawing from a huge amount of data, which is not something that naturally fits on a quantum computer, says Morello. “The problem with quantum computers in general and, in particular, with applications to AI is that loading data into them and reading data out of them is slow and cumbersome and prone to errors. It’s a bottleneck.”

Why is it so hard to build quantum machines?

Creating the qubits is hard, whatever material you start with. Interfacing with them via tiny wires like the golden lattice in IBM’s machines is hard. Getting accurate information from them is hard: “noise”, in the form of vibration or spurious electromagnetic signals, makes them behave badly and give poor results – “decoherence”, in physics speak.

Much of Andrew Doherty’s team’s work these days is in figuring out how to reduce this noise to acceptable levels and compensating for the errors that noise produces. “Compared to our conventional computers, quantum technology [computers] are very noisy devices,” he says. “They go wrong one time in 1000 as opposed to one time in an astronomically huge number of uses of [normal computers].”

Teams around the world are working on multiple approaches both to building the machines and compensating for their eccentricities, from labs in Australia to the tech giants Google, Microsoft and IBM – its Quantum Lab relies on superconducting qubits made from aluminium and niobiumand the Chinese government.

Some versions, such as IBM’s and Morello’s, chill the atoms to keep them as stable as possible. In contrast, the Australian company Quantum Brilliance is working with synthetic diamonds because they work at room temperature. “Unlike other materials,” says co-founder Marcus Doherty (no relation to Andrew), “diamond’s incredible hardness means that even at room temperature, there isn’t enough thermal energy in the environment to create vibrations that destroy the quantum properties of qubits.”

‘People are working really hard to try to find different mathematical problems that they think maybe quantum computers can’t crack.’

Another key moment in the quantum timeline came in 1994 when US mathematician Peter Shor showed that a quantum computer could crack encryption standards safeguarding everything from national intelligence systems to bank accounts. “He devised an algorithm, in theory, that he would need to run on a quantum computer,” says Bartlett. “And if you could build a quantum computer of sufficient size, then yeah, all information security falls apart.” Cybersecurity experts call that scenario Q-Day. “At the moment, people are working really hard to try to find different mathematical problems that they think maybe quantum computers can’t crack,” says Bartlett.

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In 2001, IBM made a seven-qubit device controlled through radio frequency pulses to demonstrate Shor’s Theorem. IBM’s prototype wasn’t given a huge task, managing to calculate that three times five was … wait for it ... 15. Yet this was considered a great success, even if it had shades of the famous supercomputer Deep Thought from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which ponders the question of “life, the universe and everything” for thousands of years before giving the answer: 42.(Adams also dreamed up the Infinite Improbability Drive for a spaceship called the Heart of Gold, which used quantum theory to allow it to cross through every point in the universe simultaneously, allowing interstellar travel without all that “tedious mucking about in hyperspace”.)

Then, in 2019, Google claimed its 54-qubit Sycamore processor had performed a calculation in 200 seconds that would have taken the world’s most powerful supercomputer 10,000 years – a breakthrough some breathlessly likened to the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903. Others were more sceptical, saying it would be many more years before quantum computers would have enough qubits – and be stable enough – to do anything actually useful. IBM said it could simulate Google’s experiment in two-and-a-half days on a “normal” computer, albeit if it had access to the Oak Ridge Summit supercomputer, a beast occupying an area the size of two basketball courts. IBM’s shimmering Eagle, meanwhile, had just 127 qubits; its successors, Osprey and now Condor, have pushed the bar to over 1000 and it plans for 1386 qubits in its Kookaburra in 2025.

Yet most of these devices are still basically proofs of concept, says Morello, the first step to manufacturing and miniaturising, as we saw with today’s transistor-based computers, which started out as rooms full of valves and cables. In the post-World War II era, says Andrew Doherty, “computers took up office floors of buildings in Manhattan and people put paper cards into them to program them. Out came numbers that even my childhood pocket calculator could have calculated right.” Many hundreds of billions of dollars have gone into developing computer technology, in packaging it for convenience and getting the components to work reliably, he says. “That whole engineering thing has got to grow up around these quantum technologies.”

Already, Marcus Doherty’s Quantum Brilliance has installed a quantum computer at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Perth and is about to export computers, at this stage for customers to experiment with quantum computing and work out how to make it useful. In the future, finding commercial applications for a quantum computer will require tailoring it, at least initially, says UNSW’s Maja Cassidy, a former quantum researcher for Microsoft. “People have to go in and understand a company’s problem, how they’re using classical computing and … work out what section might be enhanced by the quantum computer.”

Who is leading the quantum race?

China is the only other nation giving the United States a run for its money. Its leader, Xi Jinping, put accelerating quantum technology in his 2021 five-year plan. McKinsey & Company estimates China has spent at least $15.3 billion in public funds on quantum research. That partly came to fruition in April with the Chinese Academy of Science’s unveiling of a 504-qubit chip, still half the size of IBM’s biggest.

For its part, Australia got a head start with quantum research in the 1990s. Today, two major spinoffs from UNSW research are pursuing silicon-based quantum computing: Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC), led by Professor Michelle Simmons, and Diraq, led by Professor Andrew Dzurak. SQC’s approach involves embedding phosphorus atoms within a wafer of silicon. Dzurak’s approach involves trapping electrons on silicon transistors. Both have the advantage of silicon chips already being ubiquitous. “Today, in our phones and our laptops, the silicon chips that are in those have upwards of a billion transistors on them,” says Dzurak. “The benefit of the technology that we’ve developed is that we are also able to get millions, and ultimately billions, of quantum bits onto a single silicon chip.”

‘Computers as we know them today are an absolutely mind-blowing achievement. So any technology that has the ambition of being an alternative or being better than that has a phenomenally high bar to clear.’

Other leading players in Australia include Q-CTRL, which is working on controlling and enhancing quantum hardware; quantum security company QuintessenceLabs; and Doherty’s Quantum Brilliance, which used its synthetic diamonds in the world-first integration of a two-qubit quantum device into a supercomputer at room temperature in 2022.

Meanwhile, out of the University of Queensland came early gains in “photonic” quantum computing, which harnesses particles of light – photons – as qubits. In April, the federal and Queensland governments jointly set aside $940 million in share purchases, grants and loans for PsiQuantum, a Silicon Valley company whose founders include Australian professors Jeremy O’Brien and Terry Rudolph. Unlike ions or electrons, photons are not charged, Bartlett says, so are not sent haywire by electromagnetic forces – but they are hard to manipulate and measure.

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Another approach involves “trapped ion” quantum computing, pursued by US company IonQ: physicists take an atom, flick off an electron so it is positively charged, then suspend the resulting ion within an electromagnetic field and manipulate the ion with lasers. But Bartlett says this approach will be hard to scale, given the technology to suspend millions of ion qubits doesn’t yet exist.

In April, the federal government also announced $18 million for the University of Sydney to establish Quantum Australia, a research consortium between several universities headed by Bartlett. “It used to be a small research community,” he says. “You absolutely needed to speak the common language of everyone else, which were the rules of physics. Now we are really seeing quite a bit of specialisation.”

Even if quantum computers develop practical uses, they will likely live in vast, super-cooled server farms where land and power are cheap. We’ll communicate with them through our everyday devices, much as we download and upload data from cloud servers, Netflix, TikTok, DropBox, whatever, today. The real challenge for quantum computing, says Morello, is that the alternative is “really, really good”. “Computers as we know them today are an absolutely mind-blowing achievement. So any technology that has the ambition of being an alternative or being better than that has a phenomenally high bar to clear.”

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How much have countries and blocs invested in quantum computing?

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

The UK government has allocated £2.5 billion for quantum research.

Title:

Content: TIMES ENTERPRISE NETWORK: RISING STARS

Start-up leads charge in widening access to quantum computing

Oxford Quantum Circuits sells access to its supercomputer via Amazon Web Services
new

Dr Ilana Wisby is the chief executive of Europe’s first “quantum computing-as-a-service” company and one of very few women leading start-ups in the field.

Quantum computing is developing rapidly, and global investment in the sector has topped $35.5 billion (£27 million) as industry and governments look to seize on the opportunity it presents. In his most recent budget, Jeremy Hunt unveiled a £2.5 billion funding pot for quantum research, even as he slashed funding for other tech areas.

Quantum computers can operate much faster than conventional computers and perform multiple calculations simultaneously. The technology is still maturing, but in the near future it could solve previously intractable problems, enhance artificial intelligence and transform processes such as drug discovery.

Wisby, 32, who holds a PhD in

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

Australia is a world leader in the quantum computing gold rush, with nearly a billion dollars in government investment.

Canada is investing $40 million in Xanadu Quantum Technologies to build the world's first photonic-based, fault-tolerant quantum computer.

Title:

Content: There were 1,711 press releases posted in the last 24 hours and 342,181 in the last 365 days.

Supporting Canada's leadership in quantum computing to grow the economy and create jobs

TORONTO, Jan. 23, 2023 /CNW/ - Quantum technologies are at the leading edge of science and innovation. As Canadian researchers, workers and businesses continue to demonstrate leadership on the world stage in innovating and developing quantum technologies, we have the potential to transform how we work and live in Canada and around the world – in areas from fighting climate change to making advancements in health care. The Government of Canada will continue to support Canadian companies to help them keep growing and staying competitive, while driving economic growth and creating highly skilled and well-paying jobs for Canadians.

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced a new federal investment of $40 million to enable the Toronto-based Canadian quantum computing company Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc. to build and commercialize the world's first photonic-based, fault-tolerant quantum computer. Once developed, this computer will have the potential to provide world leading capabilities to help solve complex data problems and could be used in a variety of sectors such as finance, transportation, environmental modelling, and health.

Supported through the government's Strategic Innovation Fund, this $177.8 million project is expected to create 530 new highly skilled positions in the high-tech and quantum computing fields.

Home to some of the world's largest quantum tech hubs, Canada is well positioned to become a global leader in the developing quantum sector, which will create new opportunities for Canadians and Canadian businesses. The Government of Canada will continue to invest in innovative companies to grow the economy and create highly skilled and well-paying jobs for Canadians.

Quotes

"Quantum technology is changing the world as we know it. With the potential to solve difficult problems in key areas such as health care, finance, and climate sciences, this sector expands the realm of possibility. Today's announcement is great news for Canadian workers and businesses. This investment will bring good jobs, spur economic growth, boost innovation, and solidify Canada as a world leader in quantum technology."

— The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

"Quantum technologies will set the course of the future and thanks to companies like Xanadu, Canada is at the forefront ready to lead. With today's announcement, our government is strengthening Canada's position in quantum technology and helping to create more economic growth and good jobs for Canadians. We'll continue to build this sector through our National Quantum Strategy and support made-in-Canada technology so Canada remains a world leader for decades to come."

— The Hon. François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

"The government's continued investment in quantum technologies has been invaluable to our success. We are proud to be a Canadian company and, with this investment, are excited to enter the next phase in our mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere."

— Christian Weedbrook, Founder and CEO, Xanadu

Quick Facts

  • Since the birth of quantum science more than 100 years ago, quantum technologies have been the source of many game-changing innovations such as semiconductors and the laser.
  • Quantum science is the study, manipulation, and control of systems at the atomic and subatomic level.
  • It is estimated that by 2045, the Canadian quantum industry will be a $139 billion industry, including all economic effects, and account for over 200,000 jobs, according to a study commissioned by the National Research Council in 2020.
  • Earlier this month, the Government of Canada launched its National Quantum Strategy, which invests an additional $360 million to help solidify Canada as a global leader in quantum technologies.
  • Over the past 10 years, the Government of Canada has invested more than $1 billion in quantum research and science.
  • Additionally, the government has invested in bringing new quantum technologies to the Canadian and global markets, including investments through Canada's regional development agencies, the Strategic Innovation Fund, and the National Research Council of Canada's Industrial Research Assistance Program.
  • Xanadu is a notable contributor to Canada's innovation ecosystem and has committed to continuing to support innovation, growth, and Canada's research and development sector.
  • Founded in 2016, Xanadu is a Toronto-based Canadian quantum computing company with the mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere. Xanadu has become one of the world's leading quantum hardware and software companies and leads the development of PennyLane, an open-source software library for quantum computing and application development.

Associated Links

This document is also available at https://pm.gc.ca

SOURCE Prime Minister's Office

View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/January2023/23/c3179.html

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What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

Germany is investing at least €2 billion in quantum computer development to stay competitive in the global artificial intelligence race.

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Content: Artificial intelligence - a global race on quantum computing | Science and technology | Latest discoveries and studies from DW Arabia | DW | 04.09.2021
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Science and Technology
Artificial Intelligence: A Global Race for Quantum Computing
Germany is in the midst of a frantic global race for artificial intelligence technologies through quantum computers.
The Quantum Valley Lower Saxony project will make this state a leading center for the development of quantum computing in Germany, attracting 400 researchers.
The possession of quantum computer technology has become one of the most important bets of the future for which the world powers are engaged in a feverish race to harness all the scientific and financial possibilities.
The technology is far more powerful than today ’ s best computers, employing the incredible physical properties of tiny particles.
Instead of the data storage unit (BIT) on which traditional computing operates with values of 0 and 1, the quantum scientist uses a unit (Qbits) that allows multiple values at the same time, theoretically enabling parallel calculations beyond anything known to man to date.
However, this technology is still at an experimental stage and in the future it is expected to solve complex computational problems that current computers cannot do, applying to multiple fields, including computation of tracks and more complex decoding, as well as countless application areas, such as drug development, to name a few.
In May 2021, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has completed a PhD in quantum chemistry, launched the first quantum computer built in Germany by the American company IBM, at a time when the world is in a race against time to take the lead in this promising technology.
The Q System One, built near Stuttgart in cooperation with the German research institute Fraunhofer, has been in service since the beginning of April, and is the first device of its kind for the American company outside the United States.
Lower Saxony is also seeking to be a leading platform for the development of this technology in Germany as part of the Quantum Valley Lower Saxony project, which attracts at least 400 researchers.
Watch the video 26: 00
Made in Germany - Innovation is the engine of success
Germany - Artificial Intelligence for Quantum Computing
The major world powers have entered a frantic race over the technologies of the future that will change the way of life of humanity in the world of tomorrow.
The German government has earmarked at least €2 billion this year for the development of quantum computers, which experts say are the main entry point for artificial intelligence technologies.
Germany aims to keep pace with global competition by developing a quantum computer over the next five years.
German Minister of Scientific Research Anja Karlyschek (May 2021) said: “Quantum technologies are one of the key technologies that will be crucial in the future.
"It will allow us to make our communications completely secure, make leaps in medical technology via highly sensitive sensors, or address previously unsolvable problems in logistics or materials research via quantum computing."
Lower Saxony aims to build Germany ’ s first quantum computer and put it into operation by the end of 2025.
Using a technique called the "ion trap", ions are charged atoms, as the basic unit of computation of a computer - the ion is a qubit.
With the help of electric fields, these ions are captured and controlled by radio waves and laser beams.
Lower Saxony - Leadership in Quantum Technology
The state of Lower Saxony (eastern Germany) is seeking to take the lead in the development of quantum computer technology in Germany, in cooperation with a number of universities and research institutions, attracting the expertise of at least 400 researchers under the project "Quantum Valley Lower Saxony".
The project is expected to receive funding of 1.5 billion euros over 10 years.
watch video 01: 33
Rare bipartisan deal in U.S. Congress on tech support
Between science fiction and hard science facts, quantum technology is one of the most important breakthroughs in modern technology.
The industry is increasingly relying on highly complex computing processes in the shortest possible time frame.
However, all current quantum computers are basically just experimental or prototype devices.
The number of qubits does not have to be the only measure, but the quality of the calculations is more important.
In the future, a complete system with special algorithms and software will have to be developed so that researchers can develop technology with enormous potential.
Computers are all at the same time.
The first (mechanical) computer appeared in 1941 before a number of inventions were developed that changed the face of computing and made computers the devices we know today in terms of efficiency, smallness and lightness compared to the first models.
Despite the tremendous development of computing technologies, they still face numerous dilemmas, including, but not limited to, the constant fear of hacking and intrusion of data confidentiality.
Quantum computers go beyond the binary logic of qubits being in the states of 0 and 1 at the same time, but also in the states in between.
This means that far fewer kibbutz are needed to perform calculations, which traditional computing devices cannot.
Another advantage of quantum technology is that these processes take place at close to the speed of light.
However, the generation of quantum "bits" still poses a number of dilemmas, using superconducting elements, such as ions, "trapped" atoms, photons and other similar processes.
The ions are stimulated by microwave radiation, which can be placed in multiple states, which can then be loaded with different information.
The particles are moving.
To be able to function, it must be "frozen", with extreme cooling close to absolute zero (-273.15 ° C) using complex techniques such as magnetic fields.
In addition, qubits are unstable and react to the slightest external stimulation, such as vibrations, magnetic and electrical fields, and other factors.
watch video 02: 01
European Commission seeks to limit market power of tech giants
From a quantum computer to a neural computer.
Traditional computer chips are almost beginning to exhaust their maximum capabilities because semiconductor performance is starting to reach its physical limits.
Because chips cannot be downsized indefinitely in order to increase their performance in as little space as possible, quantum computers and neural computers are being developed as technological alternatives in the future.
As explained above, a classical computer operates with 0 and 1 binary mode geometry (i.e., current flow or no current flow).
This is specified in the bit unit.
The physical structure in a computer consists of electronic components, such as capacitors or transistors in microchips.
The primary and fundamental property of a "bit" unit is that its value is precisely defined and does not change when measured, on the other hand, the value of a "bit" does not change immediately once the value of another "bit" changes, and in a classical computer only after a certain period of time in the range of milliseconds per second.
Coinciding with the interest in quantum computers, a new technological approach has emerged and concerns computers that do not rely on artificial intelligence but mimic the human brain and are called neural computing.
It has the privilege of extremely low energy consumption, computing speed and high capacity to store information in an analogy to the functioning of the human brain.
Artificial Intelligence: The Tool of Domination in Tomorrow ’ s World
An ambitious US project has invested $170 billion for scientific research and development in the field of precision technology, such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors.
China is engaged in an economic and technological war with Western powers and the United States in particular that exploded in the form of trade battles under former President Donald Trump, and is one of the rare issues adopted by Democratic President Joe Biden after his Republican predecessor.
It enjoys broad consensus in Congress for its strategic dimension.
It has become clear that whoever wins the race for future technologies such as artificial intelligence will be the world ’ s first economy.
The U.S. project provides for $52 billion over five years to encourage companies to manufacture chips and semiconductors in the United States.
Washington believes the Chinese rival is investing at least $150 billion to develop the technologies of the future.
Hassan Zinind

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

What fields can quantum computers advance?

The European Union is investing heavily in quantum research to lead the quantum computing ecosystem.

Global investment in quantum computing has topped $35.5 billion.

How large are global investments in quantum computing?

Quantum computers are expected to significantly impact industries like cryptography, drug discovery, and optimization.

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Content: The quantum leap: Quantum computing breakthroughs to watch

The classical computer has been the bedrock of computing for over 50 years. That’s going to change soon. quantum computing, which was once a concept limited to fringe scientific papers, is now becoming a mainstream topic.

We’re seeing significant breakthroughs in the headlines which are stoking the flames of conjecture. The truth is, that this technology will bring with it much more than hype and opportunities to breathe life into sci-fi creations. In this article, we’re going to dive into some of the milestones of quantum computing, future goals and, of course, the challenges that we still have to overcome.

The Quantum Paradigm

Classical computers began as room-sized machines. Computer scientists from the 1950s would be completely flummoxed to see the powerful gaming or AI training rigs of today. That said, computers process information using bits -- either a 0 or a 1. quantum computers break the mold by using quantum bits, or qubits. They’re built upon the principles of quantum mechanics, which allow us to conceptualize that a qubit can exist in a state of 0, 1, or both at the same time (this is known as superposition in quantum theory).

As a result of this state, quantum computers are able to measure vast quantities of possibilities at the same time and exponentially increase their computing power compared to classical machines.

Significant Milestones in Quantum Computing

As with everything groundbreaking, quantum computing has been the subject of much fanfare, which has caused tangible advancements to slip through the cracks. This includes:

The Rise of Quantum Supremacy

The idea of "quantum supremacy" once seemed rather farfetched. That was until Google demonstrated with its Sycamore processor exactly what quantum machines could do. Sycamore was given a calculation that would have taken a classical computer 10,000 years to complete. It completed it in 200 seconds. quantum supremacy is now a modern reality and not just a hypothesis.

Innovations in Quantum Error-Correction

The inherently fragile nature of qubits means they're prone to errors from even the smallest environmental interference. Over the years, researchers have been laser-focused on tackling this problem, giving rise to various quantum error-correction protocols. Among the most prominent are the "surface code" and "cat code" methods, which deploy specialized qubit arrangements and extra layers of computational checks to detect and correct errors in real time.

Development of Quantum Algorithms

Unsurprisingly, with the growth of quantum processors has come an increase in quantum algorithms being developed. Algorithms like Shor's (for integer factorization) and Grover's (for database searching) have proven quantum computing's superiority over classical methods.

quantum algorithms have more granular applications as well, especially for devs and larger organizations. They could drastically reduce the time it takes to render documents in a React PDF viewer, particularly those that are large or contain complex elements like high-resolution images or intricate designs. Imagine one day sending petabytes of multimedia files without delay.

In a fraction of a second, teams could edit, compare, and merge files, all on their native platform, without having to wait until all the documentation is ready for analysis or sending.

This is just a microcosm of how massive quality-of-life (QoL) improvements from quantum computing will actually be. Aside from document readers, artists will also be able to render entire films in a matter of seconds, as there will be no resolution too high to be processed instantly. The same goes for 4K video calls without lags, VR gaming, and so much more.

Quantum Potential

What makes quantum computers so powerful is their ability to solve the problems that have simply been out of reach for classical machines, This includes:

  • Cryptography: Certain mathematical problems (like factorizing large prime numbers) are difficult for modern classical computers. quantum computers, however, are able to solve these problems much faster due to their parallel processing capabilities. Modern digital security rests on the assumption that these problems prevent computers from solving them quickly, and so quantum computing will be incredibly disruptive to modern cryptography. "Revolutionary" won’t even begin to define it.
  • Drug Discovery and Material Science: Another difficult task for classical computers is simulating and understanding complex molecular structures. With quantum computing, molecular simulations will be turbo-charged and lead to important breakthroughs in medicine and material science at a blistering pace.
  • Optimization Challenges: Be it traffic management, financial modeling, or supply chain optimization, problems involving multiple variables and constraints could benefit immensely from quantum computing's prowess, resulting in more efficient and optimal solutions.
  • Machine Learning and Big Data: Data is the new oil. And companies everywhere are drilling. quantum computers can process and analyze vast datasets swiftly and can send machine learning models to the stratosphere. This will lead to more accurate predictions and insights.

Navigating Quantum Challenges

The dream of a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer is still just a dream for now, due to certain technical hurdles.

The first is maintaining the quantum state of qubits over extended durations. The term for this is ‘quantum coherence’, and it is not an easy task. External disturbances such as cosmic rays or nearby electronic devices can disrupt its state and prevent long computations.

Of course, one must also ponder about scalability. Scaling from a few qubits to thousands or even millions which are needed for more complex tasks will need further innovations in quantum error correction (and system architecture for that matter).

For now, computer scientists have gotten around this by using extremely low temperatures to maintain qubit stability, but this is not something companies or organizations without vast resources can accomplish.

Another aspect to consider is the software ecosystem. quantum computers will need their own kind of software, along with unique programming languages and tools. This will take years and possibly decades of collaboration between physicists, computer scientists, and industry stakeholders before a barebones system is achieved. QApplications in Diverse Domains

quantum computing is going to massively change many sectors. That said, some stand to benefit sooner than the rest:

  • Financial Modeling: The financial sector is an obvious winner when it comes to having more computing power -- the sector is already using AI to its advantage. quantum algorithms will allow traders and analysts to evaluate vast numbers of scenarios extremely quickly, giving those companies with quantum machines an extraordinary advantage.
  • Climate Modeling: Predicting the Earth’s climate involves accounting for a ton of variables and how they interact with each other. quantum computers will allow more accurate climate models and better insights into climate change which will hopefully help us develop better strategies for mitigating it.
  • Logistics and Supply Chain: Efficient solutions to the traveling salesman problem -- a challenge that involves finding the shortest possible route through multiple cities -- could revolutionize logistics, saving time and reducing costs for businesses worldwide.

The Interplay Between Quantum and Classical Systems

While you may think that quantum computers will eventually replace classical computers, the truth is the future more likely has them together in a symbiotic relationship. This is because quantum machines will be used for tasks they’re better at, namely more advanced computational needs, while classical computers will be kept for more routine tasks and for user interfaces. An example of this already exists in cloud-based quantum computing platforms -- where users can send a certain task to a quantum machine and receive the result through their own classical machine.

Looking Towards the Quantum Future

The next decade promises a slew of breakthroughs. Today’s quantum computers are being compared to the classical computers of the 1950s, which is probably accurate considering they’re still in their nascent stage of development and haven’t even begun realizing their full potential.

quantum computing promises an increase in computation power for sure, but it offers much more than that. It promises a massive shift across many industries -- from healthcare to finance, energy and transportation. We live in exciting times as we stand on the precipice of a new era in technology, one that previously only belonged to the pages of science fiction.

Image credit: plotplot/Shutterstock

Lee Li is a project manager and B2B copywriter with a decade of experience in the Chinese fintech startup space as a PM for TaoBao, MeitTuan, and DouYin (now TikTok).

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threatening national security through breaking encryption

What fields can quantum computers advance?

The development of quantum computers poses significant security risks, including breaking current encryption methods.

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Quantum Tech Needed To Secure Critical Data From Quantum Decryption

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In 2021, Booz Allen Hamilton analysts surmised that China will surpass Europe and the US in quantum-related research and development and that Chinese hackers could soon target heavily encrypted datasets such as weapon designs or details of undercover intelligence officers with a view to unlocking them at a later date when quantum computing makes decryption possible.

In the report titled “Chinese threats in the quantum era”, BAH said “encrypted data with intelligence longevity, like biometric markers, covert intelligence officer and source identities, social security numbers, and weapons’ designs, may be increasingly stolen under the expectation that they can eventually be decrypted,” the report says. It says “state-aligned cyber threat actors” will start to steal or intercept previously unusable encrypted data. Chinese could hack data for future quantum decryption, report warns | Hacking | The Guardian

In fact, as reported earlier this month by the Financial Times, Chinese researchers are claiming that they have used a quantum computer to break RSA encryption, which if true, would be years ahead of expectations. Though the Chinese claims have yet to be proven (if ever), it underscores that there is a significant amount of work going on quantum research to achieve that goal and that current estimates of when anyone may break RSA encryption may be more hopeful than reality based. *Financial Times January 4, 2023

Recently, Tim Callan, a chief experience officer at cybersecurity company Sectigo, told DailyMail.com that quantum computers — which already exist could one day 'make the encryption we use today no longer fit for purpose'. He noted that “The evolution of quantum computers creates a significant threat to data security, and their immense processing power is capable of breaking encryption at great speed, leaving important data vulnerable, everything from bank account details to medical records to state secrets.” He said that 'this scenario is so alarming that specialists refer to it as the "Quantum Apocalypse.” The Quantum Apocalypse is 'just YEARS away', experts say | Daily Mail Online

The event has also been referred to as Q-Day by quantum researchers where large-scale quantum computers will be able to use Shor's algorithm to break all public key systems that employ integer factorization-based (and other) cryptography.

The urgency of a Q-Day or Quantum Apocalypse was a subject of a lecture of mine for The Economist conference, “A look into Commercialising Quantum 2022 in London”. There is little doubt that quantum computers will be able to perform faster and more precise computations than classical computers and could pose geo-military threats if in the wrong hands. And that the same computing power that allows complex problems to be solved can, in turn, be applied to undermine cybersecurity. This is because current cybersecurity protocols typically use pseudo-random numbers to encrypt sensitive information such as passwords, personal data, and quantum computers can crack the methods traditional computers use to generate random numbers, posing a significant threat to any organization using standard encryption tools.

FtChinese researchers claim to find way to break encryption using quantum computers

This month, the IBM Institute for Business Value issued report titled Security in the Quantum Era” The report examines the reality of quantum risk and the need for “enterprise adoption of quantum-safe capabilities to safeguard the integrity of critical applications and infrastructure as the risk of decryption increases.”

The IBM report states that quantum computing poses an “existential risk” to classical computer encryption protocols, and notes that cybercriminals are potentially already exfiltrating encrypted data with the intention of decrypting it once quantum computers advance as part of “harvest now, decrypt layer attacks.” IBM: Quantum computing poses an ‘existential threat’ to data encryption | VentureBeat

My personal advice, in view of the recognition of the decryption threat, is to get ready now because quantum computing will be here soon enough, and it is time for businesses, organizations and governments to protect their data for that inevitability. The good news is that we do not have to wait for technological solutions to be developed as quantum tech can battle quantum threats and there are already capabilities on the market for defense. Also, for more on quantum technologies, please see my article in FORBES: “The Quantum Era Is Arriving, And It Will Be Transformational! The Quantum Era Is Arriving, And It Will Be Transformational ! (forbes.com)

One company called Quantum Computing Inc. (QCI) (NASDAQ:QUBT), is ahead of the game and operates a full-stack quantum solutions company that is on a mission to accelerate the delivery quantum information processing hardware systems with both performance and cybersecurity benefits. With their existing quantum photonics technology offerings, it is already feasible for the company to replace classical type computing with entropy quantum computing to strengthen key sources for any cryptographic task. About Us | Quantum Computing Inc.

Quantum Computing Inc uses a Quantum Photonic System (QPS) to leverage pure, non-linear, optical properties to create a core quantum photonics technology that can be deployed at room temperature, in ordinary server room type environments. Their QPS methods and systems already have demonstrated the ability to deliver high precision computations in solving complex business optimization problems, powerful single-photon measurements in remote sensing applications such as Lidar and they have demonstrated 3-D quantum imaging capabilities using visible and near infrared, eye-safe radiation.

QCI’s Entropy Quantum Computer (EQC) system is specifically focused in addressing real-world optimization problems at a scale (11,000 Qubits) with full connectivity between variables (high density). Today, this sits in comparison with the more typical small-scale problems using limited connectivity among qubits that alternative quantum systems use to showcase their technologies. Bottom line is that today, the EQC provides results that will allow industries to scale faster as this new quantum photonic technology continues to advance.

Moreover, their entropy quantum computer operates at low power levels (< 80 Watts) and is a small compact design to fit in rack mounted or table-top configurations – offering very low SWAPc specifications (Size, Weight, Power and Cost). no quantum experts to calibrate and keep it running.

The CEO of Quantum Computing Inc , Robert Liscouski says that this same Quantum Photonic technology “can also be leveraged to provide Quantum Encryption + Quantum Authentication on the same platform and is a full solution to replace public-private key cryptography that is vulnerable to evolving quantum threats.” QCI’s patent on Quantum Private Communication methodology addresses the concerns of key distribution approaches with trusted third-party authentication / validation and provides a pure hardware alternative approach involving no mathematics or algorithms or pseudo random numbers. Patented approaches using entangled photons and correlated true quantum random numbers generated from the quantum entropy source are combined in a methodology that ensures ONLY intended recipients of information are properly authenticated in a trustless system approach.

Mr. Liscouski notes that the threat to public key cryptography, if it is broken by Shor’s algorithm, could leave critical infrastructure, financial & banking systems, healthcare, and transportation all vulnerable to attack. With QPS, that threat is mitigated both on current classical or from near-term quantum systems with the company’s existing technologies such as its quantum random number generator, and a new photonic physically unclonable function chip that provides a unique authentication “quantum fingerprint” for the user.

This quantum photonic platform is welcomed as the West is amid a “Quantum Computing Supremacy Race” especially with China that can exponentially change the geo-political balance of the world.

China has recently announced some eye-opening milestones on their quantum communications capabilities and Chinese researchers announced last year that they set a new quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) world record of 102.2 km (64 miles), smashing the previous mark of 18 km (11 miles). Researchers break world record for quantum-encrypted communications (engadget.com) The Chinese are heavily investing (estimated to be the many $billions) in all areas of quantum research and are demonstrating results.

Investment is also growing in quantum in the US and in Europe and with Asian allies. The Japanese government recently announced that intends to enter the global quantum computing race by putting its first domestically produced quantum computer into service within the current fiscal year ending March 2023. “The government strategy aims to reach 10 million quantum technology users in Japan by 2030 and to create an environment where it can be used in such varied fields as medicine, banking and new materials development.” Tokyo proposes first domestic quantum computer use by March 2023 | The Japan Times

The U.S. Government, including NSA, DOD, DHS, NIST have been preparing for a potential Q-Day by requiring new quantum proof standards for algorithms. “NSA views quantum-resistant (or post-quantum) cryptography as a more cost effective and easily maintained solution than quantum key distribution. For all these reasons, NSA does not support the usage of QKD or QC to protect communications in National Security Systems and does not anticipate certifying or approving any QKD or QC security products for usage by NSS customers. This is a perfect time and opportunity for QCI’s Quantum Private Communication Network and other post quantum technology applications to be to tested and deployed in the Zero-trust environment. National Security Agency/Central Security Service > Cybersecurity > Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Quantum Cryptography QC (nsa.gov)

Stopping the threat of adversaries decrypting valuable data extracted from networks, agencies, data centers, and companies, by adversaries has also become a legislative priority. In December of 2022 Congress, passed the Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act into law. The legislation, directs the Office of Management and Budget “to prioritize the migration of federal information technology systems to post-quantum cryptography and come up with guidance for the federal assessment of critical systems based on the standards that the National Institute of Standards and Technology will issue for post-quantum cryptography.” This is a great step as it mandates forward thinking about our quantum era and the security implications of not being prepared.

Governments are not the only players. Industry, including Intel, Google, IBM, D-Wave, and others are very active in investments in quantum capabilities and approaches. Academia is also getting more involved in quantum. In an important development, scientists with the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE) at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering announced that they’ve connected the city of Chicago and suburban labs with a quantum network. The Chicago network will be opened to academia and industry as one of the nation’s first publicly-available testbeds for quantum security technology. Chicago expands and activates quantum network, taking steps toward a secure quantum internet | Chicago Quantum Exchange

The University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are two leading universities to follow for more on quantum developments. Also, for researchers, The Quantum Security Alliance and IEEE Quantum are two good resources that bring academia, industry, and US government entities together to identify, define, collaborate on quantum computing technology innovations. Welcome to Quantum Security Alliance About - IEEE Quantum

Certainly, quantum technology, especially quantum computing, has amazing potential that could revolutionize everything from communications, real-time data analytics, bio tech, genomic sequencing, and materials sciences. Quantum computing will also accelerate us into the future by impacting the landscape of artificial intelligence and the Metaverse. But with the good, we have to plan and prevent the bad, most critically data which is the lifeblood of economies and commerce. Starting now, a quantum proof cybersecurity path is an important one to follow.

Chuck Brooks is President of Brooks Consulting International, is a globally recognized thought leader and subject matter expert Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies. Chuck is also an Adjunct Faculty at Georgetown University’s Graduate Applied Intelligence Program and the Graduate Cybersecurity Risk Management Programs. Cyber Express named Chuck “Cybersecurity Person of the Year” for 2022. LinkedIn named Chuck as one of “The Top 5 Tech People to Follow on LinkedIn.” He was named as one of the world’s “10 Best Cyber Security and Technology Experts” by Best Rated. He is also a Cybersecurity Expert for “The Network” at the Washington Post, Visiting Editor at Homeland Security Today, Expert for Executive Mosaic/GovCon, and a Contributor to FORBES.  Chuck has an MA from the University of Chicago, and a BA from DePauw University.

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Companies and governments are investing in post-quantum cryptography, quantum key distribution, and quantum networking to mitigate risks.

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Achieving Quantum-Level Security With Hybrid Networks Using PQC, QKD And Quantum Internet

Security CEO and founder of Safe Quantum Inc., working with data-driven companies to define, develop and deploy quantum-safe technologies.

Even though commercially viable quantum computers don’t yet exist, the problem they present for data protection and security is quite real. The prospect of matching quantum speed against large volumes of data may be years away. But that hasn’t deterred cybercriminals from hijacking and holding hostage so-called evergreen data—information like personal health records, corporate intellectual property and government secrets. With these “harvesting” attacks, crooks are biding their time until a quantum computer matures enough to decrypt the existing security.

There are three technologies that companies and governments can use that could mitigate future disasters, but there’s a catch. Deployed in isolation, none of these approaches can handle the threats to data today and down the road.

First, let’s look at encryption standards. RSA is the encryption standard that most of the world has relied upon for over 40 years. That said, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is spearheading an initiative to introduce new post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms intended to replace RSA and withstand a quantum attack.

The challenge with this mathematical approach? As with RSA, mathematical solutions are only as finite as the computing power available to hack them. (For a bit more on this, see my previous article.)

The upside of the new PQC standards, however, is they will add a level of security today to transactional data, such as online commerce and consumer retail. This approach to protecting data at the edge will be a replacement for RSA and a precursor to a fault-tolerant quantum computer capable of breaking RSA encryption in the future.

The second approach is to fight the threat of quantum-driven attacks with quantum-level security. This is another solution that’s rapidly coming to market. Using quantum key distribution, or QKD, organizations can use existing fiber-optic cables readily available across much of the world to securely connect a sender and a receiver. Data delivered via photonic keys is only available to the intended recipient.

Using closed-loop metro-scale networks such as the BT-Toshiba-EY initiative, forward-looking companies are working to protect high-priority data. Although QKD may not be scalable for adoption in consumer settings as of now, it’s laying the foundation for using quantum technologies as a key infrastructure for data security.

I’ve expounded previously upon the value of using the pending NIST standards in conjunction with QKD as part of a defense-in-depth strategy. Certainly, doing them both will give you a leg up against what bad actors can do.

But there’s a third component that together with the first two approaches can accelerate the pace of quantum adoption in a way that prepares for the quantum internet while also delivering a new level of security protection. It uses a quantum principle called entanglement, and that’s what keeps two photons of light connected, no matter the distance between them. While nascent, entanglement distribution uses metro-scale networks to link entangled photons between multiple parties.

However, photons of light are impacted by “noise” such as cable vibration, temperature fluctuations and even disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field. This noise impact is exacerbated over distance, which can cause photons to misbehave and become faulty.

Controlling this noise means quantum networks can be expanded over greater distances, surpassing local point-to-point networks to become broadscale networks, like a quantum internet. And entanglement distribution could also result in distributed processing of quantum computers, by which quantum computers can be strung together and their power multiplied over the network.

To achieve quantum-level security, we must bring all our weapons to bear. A hybrid approach would combine the mathematical protection of PQC, the quantum mechanics protection of QKD and the ultimate in quantum mechanics safeguards achieved by photon entanglement distribution.

For a practical example, consider a mobile telecommunications network. With a large number of distribution nodes throughout a metro network connected with fiber and QKD, wireless transmissions between consumers and other end users would be protected using the more readily adoptable PQC encryption algorithms.

QKD between a major distribution node and a retail customer isn’t realistic at this point, but telco providers could use QKD as an app on the infrastructure between data distribution points and connectors. And by adding entanglement distribution along with memory and repeater technologies, the quantum network could remain coherent across great distances.

You can protect data at the edge using PQC security algorithms and apply QKD quantum security to critical data between nodes today. An investment in the infrastructure required to build the quantum internet is a natural progression from today’s PQC and QKD metro-scale networks. Combining PQC and QKD with the goal of delivering quantum-safe communications with entanglement distribution testbeds is the right step toward the future of the quantum internet and the new world of networked information security.

Our best approach to building a quantum-safe infrastructure is to recognize that the ideal hybrid network includes PQC at the edge, QKD between high-data traffic nodes and the introduction of quantum networking (consisting of entanglement swapping, quantum memory and quantum repeaters) to achieve the future quantum internet.

Putting all your eggs in one PQC basket is a short-sighted strategy that’s too risky without the other components. PQC took a few tumbles with Rainbow and SIKE bowing out of the NIST standards competition in 2022, which should give one pause about a single-threaded solution.

Like the adoption of public key cryptography with RSA encryption starting in the 1970s and progressing into the 1990s, the quantum-safe solution of the 2020s will take a similar amount of time to achieve success by the 2030s to 2040s. But I believe that the winning approach will include the best features of three technologies: PQC, QKD and quantum networking.

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What are the potential threats of quantum computers?

threatening national security through breaking encryption

What fields can quantum computers advance?

The National Institute of Standards and Technology will release post-quantum encryption standards to protect against quantum-enabled cyberattacks.

What are the potential threats of quantum computers?

threatening national security through breaking encryption

What fields can quantum computers advance?

Adoption of quantum-safe solutions is expected to succeed by the 2030s to 2040s.

Quantum computing has vast potential applications and is expected to significantly impact various industries and aspects of life.

Title:

Content: Quantum Computing Market was valued at nearly USD 234.06 billion by 2032

Prudour Private Limited

Updated · Mar 06, 2023

Quantum Computing Market Overview

Published Via 11Press: Quantum computing is a rapidly developing market that is revolutionizing how we approach computing and data processing. By employing principles of quantum mechanics to perform computations, quantum computers are capable of solving problems that classical computers may find impossible or impracticable to resolve.

The global quantum computing market size is forecast to reach USD 234.06 billion by 2032 from USD 10.13 billion in 2022, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.89% during the forecast period.

At present, the quantum computing market is dominated by a few major players such as IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Honeywell. These firms are investing heavily in quantum computing research and development as well as creating quantum computing hardware and software systems.

The quantum computing market is expected to have a profound effect on industries such as healthcare, finance, logistics, and energy. Some key applications of quantum computing include drug discovery, supply chain optimization, financial modeling, and climate modeling.

Though the quantum computing market is promising, it still faces several obstacles such as high costs of hardware, a shortage of skilled experts in this area, and technical difficulties when building large-scale quantum computers. With ongoing research and development efforts, however, these problems should be overcome within the coming years, leading to even greater growth and innovation in this space.

Key Takeaways

  • The global quantum computing market size was valued at USD 234.06 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 36.89% from 2022 to 2032.
  • Quantum computing is capable of solving problems that would be intractable or impossible for classical computers to solve.
  • The quantum computing market is dominated by a few major players, including IBM, Google, Microsoft and Honeywell.
  • The quantum computing market is expected to have a profound effect on numerous industries, such as healthcare, finance, logistics and energy.
  • Quantum computing has many important applications such as drug discovery, supply chain optimization, financial modeling and climate modeling.
  • The quantum computing market remains plagued by several obstacles, such as the high cost of quantum computing hardware, lack of qualified quantum computing experts and technical difficulties in building and running large-scale quantum computing systems.
  • Research and development are expected to overcome these obstacles within the next couple of years, propelling even greater growth and innovation in the quantum computing market.

Request For Sample Report: https://market.us/report/quantum-computing-market/request-sample/

Regional Snapshot

  • North America: North America is currently the leading market for quantum computing, with the United States playing a major role. Major companies such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft are driving this growth through their presence and investment in research and development activities related to quantum computing. This region boasts numerous key players such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft which are driving demand within this region.
  • Europe: Europe is an increasingly important market for quantum computing, with countries such as the UK, Germany, and France investing heavily in research and development. Through partnerships between quantum computing companies and other technology firms as well as the growing adoption of quantum computing across various industries, this region’s market is experiencing rapid expansion.
  • Asia Pacific: The quantum computing market in Asia Pacific is expected to experience significant growth over the coming years due to increased investments in research and development by countries like China, Japan, and South Korea. Furthermore, there have been an increasing number of collaborations between companies using quantum computing with academic institutions as well as its increasing adoption across industries like healthcare and finance – all contributing factors for market expansion within this region.
  • The Rest of the World: Countries such as Brazil, South Africa, and the UAE are expected to experience significant growth in the quantum computing market over the coming years due to increased investments in research and development efforts as well as the growing adoption of quantum computing across various industries. These factors are fueling this region’s meteoric rise in this region.

Drivers

  • Quantum Computing Gaining Adoption in Various Industries: Quantum computing is seeing an uptick in popularity across a range of industries, such as healthcare, finance, logistics, and energy – as companies seek to use their power to solve complex problems and gain an edge in competition.
  • Investments in Quantum Computing Research and Development: Governments, academic institutions, and private companies have made substantial investments in quantum computing research and development, spurring innovation and progress within the field.
  • Growing Number of Partnerships and Collaborations: There has been an uptick in partnerships and collaborations between quantum computing companies and other technology firms, as well as academic institutions and research organizations. This trend is propelling the development of new quantum computing hardware and software systems, as well as its adoption across various industries.
  • Increasing Access to Cloud-Based Quantum Computing Services: The growing availability of cloud-based quantum computing services is making it simpler for companies and researchers to utilize this cutting-edge technology, spurring adoption and innovation within the field.

Restraints

  • Limited Access to Qualified Quantum Computing Experts: Unfortunately, there is currently a shortage of highly experienced quantum computing specialists, making it challenging for companies to construct and sustain quantum computing systems.
  • Technical Challenges in Building and Maintaining Large-Scale Quantum Computing Systems: The development of large-scale quantum computing systems is still in its early stages, so there are numerous technical obstacles that must be overcome, such as noise reduction, error correction, and scalability.
  • Limited Quantum Computing Applications: Although the list of potential applications for quantum computing is growing, the number of practical ones that have been developed and implemented remains limited. This can make it challenging for companies to justify investing in quantum computing technology.
  • Regulatory Challenges: Quantum computing technology may face regulatory restrictions, particularly around data privacy and security. This could create additional obstacles to the adoption and investment in the technology.

Opportunities

  • Growing Number of Partnerships and Collaborations: The growing number of partnerships and collaborations among quantum computing companies, other technology firms, academic institutions, and research organizations is creating opportunities for the development of new quantum computing hardware and software systems as well as its adoption across various industries.
  • Advancements in Quantum Computing Hardware and Software: With the rapid progress being made in the development of quantum computing hardware and software, new opportunities will present themselves for applying this technology across various industries and fields.
  • The growing availability of cloud-based quantum computing services: Cloud-based quantum computing services are making it simpler for companies and researchers to access and utilize quantum computing technology, spurring adoption and innovation within the field.
  • Growth of Quantum Computing as a Service: As more companies and researchers embrace the potential of quantum computing, cloud-based quantum computing services are creating exciting new business opportunities for those offering these solutions.
  • Potential for Breakthroughs in Areas such as Drug Discovery, Finance, and Energy: Quantum computing holds the potential to unravel complex issues in fields like drug discovery, finance, and energy – leading to major breakthroughs and advances. This presents companies with unique opportunities for those who can develop and implement quantum computing solutions in these sectors.

Challenges

  • Technical Challenges in Constructing and Running Large Quantum Computing Systems: As quantum computing systems continue to emerge, numerous technical obstacles must be overcome such as noise reduction, error correction, and scalability. These issues make it challenging for companies to construct and run these massive quantum computers efficiently.
  • Limited Access to Qualified Quantum Computing Experts: There is currently a shortage of highly experienced quantum computing professionals, making it difficult for companies to construct and maintain quantum computing systems. This shortage could potentially restrict the growth of this industry in the coming years.
  • Quantum computing Applications: While quantum computing has many potential uses, the number of practical applications that have been created and implemented remains limited. This could make investing in quantum computing technology and research on practical applications an attractive prospect.

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Recent Developments

  • Google Claims Quantum Supremacy: In 2019, Google claimed to have achieved quantum supremacy by performing a calculation on its quantum computer that even the most powerful supercomputers would take thousands of years to complete. This was seen as an important milestone in the advancement of quantum computing technology.
  • IBM Launches Quantum Computing Program for Students: In 2020, IBM unveiled a quantum computing program specifically tailored towards students that provides them with access to IBM’s resources and tools, as well as a platform for learning and collaboration.
  • Honeywell Achieves Quantum Computer Record Performance: On March 20, 2021, Honeywell revealed its creation of a quantum computer with an astonishing quantum volume of 512. This feat marked an amazing advancement in quantum computing technology and demonstrated how rapidly progress has been made since then.
  • Amazon Web Services Announces Quantum Computing Service: On June 2021, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the launch of its own quantum computing service called Amazon Bracket. This offering gives customers access to various vendors’ hardware as well as tools and resources for developing and testing quantum algorithms.

Key Market Segments

Type

  • Hardware
  • Software
  • Services

Application

  • Defense
  • Healthcare & pharmaceuticals
  • Chemicals
  • Banking & Finance
  • Energy & power

Key Market Players

  • D-Wave Systems
  • Google
  • IBM
  • Intel
  • Microsoft
  • 1QB Information Technologies
  • Anyon Systems
  • Cambridge Quantum Computing
  • ID Quantique
  • IonQ
  • QbitLogic
  • QC Ware
  • Quantum Circuits
  • Qubitekk
  • QxBranch
  • Rigetti Computing

Nature Insights

  • Progress is being made in the development of quantum computing hardware: Despite the challenges facing large-scale quantum computing systems, progress is being made on quantum computing hardware. This includes creating quantum processors with increasingly more qubits and creating new materials suitable for use in quantum computers.
  • Quantum computing software is still in its early stages: While progress is being made with quantum computing hardware, software development for quantum computation remains at a standstill. This presents an immense challenge to the industry as developing efficient quantum algorithms is essential to realizing its full potential.
  • Collaboration is essential to the advancement of quantum computing: Collaboration between companies, academic institutions, and research organizations is essential for progress in this industry. This includes joint efforts to develop new hardware and software systems as well as collaborations that promote quantum computing across various industries.

Report Scope

Report Attribute Details
The market size value in 2022 USD 10.13 Bn
Revenue forecast by 2032 USD 234.6 Bn
Growth Rate CAGR Of 36.89%
Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa, and the Rest of the World
Historical Years 2017-2022
Base Year 2022
Estimated Year 2023
Short-Term Projection Year 2028
Long-Term Projected Year 2032

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FAQ.

What is quantum computing?

Quantum computing is a type of processing data using quantum mechanics. It relies on principles such as superposition, entanglement, and interference which enable quantum computers to perform calculations that would be impossible with classical computers.

What are some potential applications of quantum computing?

Quantum computing holds great promise for revolutionizing industries such as drug discovery, finance, energy, and logistics. Potential uses include creating new drugs and materials, optimizing supply chains and logistics networks, and even improving weather forecasting models with greater precision.

What are some of the challenges facing the quantum computing market?

The quantum computing market faces numerous obstacles, such as technical difficulties in building and running large-scale quantum computers, high costs associated with quantum computing hardware, a scarcity of highly qualified quantum experts, and an absence of practical applications developed and deployed.

Who are some of the major players in the quantum computing market?

Major companies operating within this space include IBM, Google, Microsoft, Honeywell, Intel, and Rigetti Computing. These firms are actively developing and commercializing quantum computing hardware and software systems.

What is the outlook for the quantum computing market?

Overall, analysts anticipate a bright future for quantum computing, with continued investment and innovation anticipated in the coming years. Though still in its early stages of development, its potential advantages are immense - leading to rapid industry growth over the coming years.

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What advantages do quantum computers have over conventional computers?

extremely fast calculations
extremely complex calculations

What fields can quantum computers advance?

security
drug manufacturing
finance
big data processing
AI
climate change solutions

The future of computing will likely involve a symbiotic relationship between quantum and classical systems.

The security community is developing post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to withstand quantum threats.

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Content: Americas

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UK Editor

11 notable post-quantum cryptography initiatives launched in 2023

Feature
Oct 09, 202310 mins
SecuritySecurity PracticesThreat and Vulnerability Management

With “Q-Day” in the foreseeable future, the security community is working towards cryptographic encryption that can withstand post-quantum threats

Credit: Microsoft

The point at which quantum computers will be capable of breaking existing cryptographic algorithms -- known as "Q-Day" -- is approaching. It's a juncture that's been discussed for years, but with advancements in computing power, post-quantum threats are becoming very real. Some security experts believe Q-Day will occur within the next decade, potentially leaving all digital information vulnerable under current encryption protocols.

Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is therefore high on the agenda as the security community works to understand, build, and implement cryptographic encryption that can withstand post-quantum threats and attacks of the future.

"PQC migration provides an opportunity to re-evaluate the larger cybersecurity landscape," Dylan Ruddy, a lead scientist within Booz Allen's quantum sciences team, tells CSO. By integrating new PQC algorithms into a zero-trust architecture, cybersecurity infrastructure can be redesigned into a new crypto agility framework, he says.

"A redesign to these new agile security principals would allow system stakeholders to respond to new threats introduced by emerging technologies by investigating existing cryptographic assets, identifying new cryptographic threat surfaces, and integrating new cryptographic solutions."

Here are 11 notable initiatives, programs, standards, and resources launched this year to help the creation/development of and migration to PQC.

IETF launches working group to coordinate quantum-resistant cryptographic protocols

In January, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) launched the Post-Quantum Use In Protocols (PQUIP) working group to coordinate the use of cryptographic protocols that are not susceptible to large quantum computers. "The idea of the working group is to be a standing venue to discuss PQC from an operational and engineering side," said Sofia Celi, co-chair of PQUI. "It is also a venue of last resort to discuss PQC-related issues in IETF protocols that have no associated maintenance on other working groups that the IETF has."

The IESG said the working group has been set up on an experimental basis, and in two years, it intends to review it for rechartering to continue or else closure. In August, the group published the Post-Quantum Cryptography for Engineers paper to provide an overview of the current threat landscape and the relevant algorithms designed to help prevent those threats.

UK publishes National Quantum Strategy to steer technical standards

In March, the UK government published a new National Quantum Strategy detailing its 10-year plan for leading a quantum-enabled economy, recognizing the importance of quantum technologies for the UK's security.

The UK will work with relevant global bodies to ensure that global quantum technical standards promote its prosperity and security interests, including accelerating the commercialization of quantum technologies and supporting the sector in the UK, outlined the strategy.

The UK will also work with key partners to scope and identify the best approach to coordinating national engagement in priority areas of quantum technical standards development. Relevant industry and academia will be engaged in these efforts to track priority standards activity, raise stakeholder awareness, and develop roadmaps to support UK engagement with quantum standards development, it added.

"There are a number of early quantum standardization activities taking place globally with significant focus on quantum-safe cryptography and quantum key distribution (QKD), with UK leadership in these areas," the strategy read.

In March, quantum security vendor QuSecure claimed to have accomplished the first known live, end-to-end quantum-resilient cryptographic communications satellite link through space. It marked the first time US satellite data transmissions had been protected from classical and quantum decryption attacks using PQC, according to the company. The quantum-secure communication to space and back to Earth was made through a Starlink satellite working with a leading global system integrator (GSI) and security provider.

This is significant because data shared between satellites and ground stations travels through the air and traditionally has been vulnerable to theft, leaving satellite communications even more accessible than typical internet communications, the vendor said.

QuSecure, Accenture achieve successful multi-orbit data communications test secured with PQC

Later in the same month, QuSecure announced it had collaborated with Accenture to accomplish the first successful multi-orbit data communications test secured with PQC. This demonstrated that crypto-agility, successfully rotating to a less vulnerable algorithm, is real and possible, achieved through an Accenture-facilitated low earth orbit (LEO) data transmission, the vendor said.

Prior to this advancement, data from multi-orbit satellites could be collected and potentially broken by classical means and quantum computers with enough power, QuSecure added. The transmission included a switch over from LEO to a geosynchronous orbit (GEO) satellite and back down to earth, as a model for redundancy in the event of a breach, failure, or threat to satellites in a single orbit.

"As more organizations are increasingly relying on space technology to provide solutions, resiliency and more relevant information, security of those systems and the data is paramount," commented Paul Thomas, space innovation lead for technology innovation at Accenture.

NCCoE addresses preparing for the adoption of new PQC algorithms

In April, the US National Cybersecurity Council of Excellence (NCCoE), a collaboration of cybersecurity experts from the public and private sectors, released a draft publication addressing preparation for adopting new PQC algorithms. Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography extended the typical message of urgency to plan for migration seen in federal mandates to members of the private sector.

NCCoE said it would be engaging with industry collaborators, regulated industry sectors, and the US government to bring awareness to the issues involved in migrating to post-quantum algorithms and to prepare the crypto community for migration.

PQShield supports PQC migration, advanced side-channel secured implementations

In May, PQC standards company PQShield signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading IT Services, consulting, and business solutions organization, to help clients transition to quantum-secure solutions. It also announced a collaboration with eShard, a side-channel analysis and testing tools provider, to further accelerate advanced side-channel secured implementations of PQC that are critical for high-security standards across industries.

"Quantum computers pose a particular threat to large organizations given the sprawling nature of their cryptographic infrastructure and their reliance on secure communications," said Ali El Kaafarani, CEO and founder of PQShield. "We're seeing a significant shift in the commercial landscape as more of these businesses wake up to the urgency of the problem and seek out a solution."

X9 announces initiative to create PQC assessment guidelines

In June, the Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc. (X9) announced a new initiative to create PQC assessment guidelines to act as a roadmap for PQC transitions. It invited participants to take part in the effort. When completed, the X9 guidelines might be used by an organization as a self-assessment tool, as an informal assessment of a third-party service provider, or as an independent assessment by a qualified information security professional, X9 said. An auditor or regulator might also refer to the assessment guidelines which could form a foundation for crypto agility standardization, it added.

"It will be important to have PQC assessment guidelines available before transitions are underway, for consistency to make the process as smooth as possible and the outcomes optimal," said Michael Talley, chair of the X9F1 Cryptographic Tools working group.

Google readies Chrome for future attacks with quantum-resistant encryption

In August, Google announced it was taking a major step in making web browsing safe from future quantum computers by adding Chrome support for quantum-resistant encryption. Dubbed X25519Kyber768, the new quantum-resistant cryptography will be a hybrid mechanism that combines the output of two cryptographic algorithms to encrypt Transport Layer Security (TLS) sessions.

These are X25519, an elliptic curve algorithm widely used for key agreement in TLS today, and Kyber-768, a quantum-resistant Key Encapsulation Method (KEM). The new hybrid encryption has been made available in Chrome 116, and behind a flag in Chrome 115.

"Google's announcement of shielding encryption keys in Chrome from quantum computers is very forward-looking," said Pareekh Jain, chief analyst at Pareekh Consulting. "Quantum computers' serious adoption is a few years away, but messages have a risk of getting stored now and decrypting later."

NIST publishes draft PQC standards for global framework

In August, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published draft PQC standards designed to form a future global framework to help organizations protect themselves from quantum-enabled cyberattacks.

The standards were selected by NIST following a seven-year process which began when the agency issued a public call for submissions to the PQC Standardization Process. NIST called for public feedback on three draft Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), which are based upon previously selected encryption algorithms.

The public-key encapsulation mechanism selected was CRYSTALS-KYBER, along with three digital signature schemes: CRYSTALS-Dilithium, FALCON, and SPHINCS+. It is intended that these algorithms will be capable of protecting sensitive US government information well into the foreseeable future, including after the advent of quantum computers, incorporated into three FIPS: FIPS 203, FIPS 204, and FIPS 205, NIST said.

CISA, NSA, NIST issue PQC migration resource

In August, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), and NIST published a factsheet on the impacts of quantum capabilities. It urged all organizations, especially those that support critical infrastructure, to begin early planning for migration to PQC standards by developing their own quantum-readiness roadmap.

Quantum-Readiness: Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography outlined how organizations can prepare a cryptographic inventory, engage with technology vendors, and assess their supply chain reliance on quantum-vulnerable cryptography in systems and assets. The factsheet also provides recommendations for technology vendors whose products support the use of quantum-vulnerable cryptography.

"PQC is about proactively developing and building capabilities to secure critical information and systems from being compromised through the use of quantum computers," said Rob Joyce, director of NSA cybersecurity. "The transition to a secured quantum computing era is a long-term intensive community effort that will require extensive collaboration between government and industry. The key is to be on this journey today and not wait until the last minute."

Tech community launches PQC Coalition to drive understanding, adoption

In September, a community of technologists, researchers, and expert practitioners launched the PQC Coalition to drive progress toward broader understanding and public adoption of PQC algorithms. Founding coalition members include IBM Quantum, Microsoft, MITRE, PQShield, SandboxAQ, and the University of Waterloo.

The PQC Coalition will apply its collective technical expertise and influence to facilitate global adoption of PQC in commercial and open-source technologies. Coalition members will contribute their expertise to motivate and advance interoperable standards and technical approaches and step forward as knowledgeable experts in providing critical outreach and education.

The coalition will initially focus on four workstreams:

  • Advancing standards relevant to PQC migration.
  • Creating technical materials to support education and workforce development.
  • Producing and verifying open-source, production-quality code, and implementing side-channel resistant code for industry verticals.
  • Ensuring cryptographic agility.
UK Editor

Michael Hill is the UK editor of CSO Online. He has spent the past 8 years covering various aspects of the cybersecurity industry, with particular interest in the ever-evolving role of the human-related elements of information security. A keen storyteller with a passion for the publishing process, he enjoys working creatively to produce media that has the biggest possible impact on the audience.

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What are the potential threats of quantum computers?

threatening national security through breaking encryption

What fields can quantum computers advance?

Post-quantum cryptography is a software-based solution compatible with existing infrastructures.

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Commission publishes Recommendation on Post-Quantum Cryptography

Today, the Commission has published a Recommendation on Post-Quantum Cryptography to encourage Member States to develop and implement a harmonised approach as the EU transitions to post-quantum cryptography. This will help to ensure that the EU’s digital infrastructures and services are secure in the next digital era.

While quantum technologies will bring many economic and societal benefits, advances in quantum computing are expected to make it easier for malicious actors to access sensitive data, unless we advance our cryptography.

It is vital that communications remain protected in the future for the security of our citizens, societies, economies and the EU’s digital single market. Post-Quantum Cryptography is one of the solutions to this future threat, as it is based on mathematical problems that are difficult even for quantum computers to solve. As a software-based solution, post-quantum cryptography is compatible with our existing infrastructures in several sectors, and so can be deployed relatively swiftly.

The Recommendation addresses the need for a coordinated approach to Europe’s transition to a quantum-safe digital infrastructure. It will help Member States develop a consistent strategy as they migrate towards more secure ways of protecting their digital infrastructures. This will promote interoperability between countries, allowing systems and services to function seamlessly across borders.

The Recommendation complements the work already being done by many countries and at international level to develop and select post-quantum cryptography algorithms for standards, including the research efforts done by EU-funded projects, the recent report from the European Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), and discussions on post-quantum cryptography at international level, such as in the EU-US Trade and Technology Council and Cyber Dialogue.

Source European Commission - Apr 11, 24

The migration to quantum-safe cryptography will significantly impact every modern business.

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A Question Of Biggitude: Your Organization’s Cryptography

CTO and co-founder at ISARA Corporation. Focused on technology for crypto agility and quantum safety.

How many grains of sand are there in the world? You have likely asked this at some point in your life. The enormity of that number is mind-boggling. Author David Blatner wrote about such wonders in Spectrums: Our Mind-Boggling Universe from Infinitesimal to Infinity. With numbers so high, Blatner says we “can’t handle the biggitude.”

Like the grains of sand in the world, cryptography is everywhere — and sometimes it’s challenging for organizations to keep track of. It’s a question of biggitude. Cryptography is at the core of every secure transaction, every safe automobile, every form of communication. Think about when you send money to a friend, check your email or make a purchase online. Our fast-moving world is dependent on encryption, a critical component of every layer of the computing architecture — hardware, operating systems, network protocols, applications — found on-premises, in the cloud, in mobile, distributed or on connected devices in the internet of things (IoT). Why is this pervasive set of technologies that we’ve been relying on since the 1970s, but never paid too much attention to, suddenly needing our attention?

To address security threats, minimize risks and future-proof systems, especially with cryptographic standards in flux and updates by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) about new standards coming in late 2021, it’s paramount for enterprises to embrace a centralized approach to cryptographic management. Imagine how difficult it can be for enterprises to inventory their cryptography assets across entire infrastructures when much of it’s hidden, outdated or housed within a third-party organization. It’s a resource-heavy and time-consuming task that, by the time it’s finished, generates information that’s no longer fresh and requires the process to start over again.

Implementing A Cryptographic Center Of Excellence To Help Meet Challenges

Can establishing and implementing a cryptographic center of excellence (CryptoCoE) help? As organizations prepare for incoming cryptographic transitions, prioritizing cryptographic management is a critical success factor. One of the largest cryptography transitions in history will be the one from classical to quantum-safe cryptography. The looming quantum computer threat to encryption has led some organizations to embark on implementing a CryptoCoE to mitigate cryptographic threats.

Threats to cryptography, such as quantum computing, will have a significant — even detrimental — impact on every modern business. The fact that migration takes a long time adds to the challenge, making strategic, long-term planning a must.

According to one of our global finance partners in Switzerland, one of the key issues is the lack of visibility into cryptography; you can’t quantify the risk of something you’re not aware of, let alone manage it. This bank has implemented a cryptographic center of excellence, which I think is a great idea since the larger an enterprise, the more difficult it is to have central governance.

Here’s what’s at stake: Cryptographic changes, such as public key infrastructure (PKI) migration, from classic to quantum-safe standards, are massive and disruptive in size, scope and complexity. Chief information security officers (CISOs) often have no visibility into their organization’s cryptographic posture, with limits the ability to articulate the footprint and scope of the infrastructure impacted. This makes it complicated to make the case for additional resources and budget.

Similarly, IT departments often have little visibility into cryptographic configurations and the cryptography in operation across hundreds of thousands of live transactions. Getting a grasp of the cryptographic posture is often a tedious, manual effort that doesn’t allow for insights into the cryptography in use. Meanwhile, organizations face incredible scrutiny to meet regulatory compliance.

The Cryptographic Management Challenge Is Manageable

Rest assured, the cryptography management challenge, while immense, is manageable. For starters, what’s required, according to the chief architect at the financial institution I mentioned, is board-level and C-level visibility and enterprise-wide oversight. Leaders need a regular, comprehensive report of the scope of the issues and threats, the impact and the solutions and path to enable sustainable, forward-moving business. Being able to migrate between the emerging crypto standards in a repeatable, manageable and cost-effective way is critical in achieving crypto-agility.

Organizations should be able to enforce cryptographic policies across all infrastructures and reign in the silos. Enterprise-wide support, including the C-suite embracing a CryptoCoE, will help get all stakeholders on board. Ultimately, this will help to answer the questions of, “What cryptography do you have in your organization?” and “What’s a priority to be fixed, upgraded or replaced, and when?”

As for the question of how many grains of sand there are in the world: “If you assume a grain of sand has an average size and you calculate how many grains are in a teaspoon and then multiply by all the beaches and deserts in the world, the Earth has roughly (and we’re speaking very roughly here) ... seven quintillion, five hundred quadrillion grains,” states Robert Krulwich, science correspondent for NPR.

Keeping track of your cryptography can be infinitely more manageable than counting grains of sand.

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CTO and co-founder at ISARA Corporation. Focused on technology for crypto agility and quantum safety. Read Mike Brown's full executive profile here.

CTO and co-founder at ISARA Corporation. Focused on technology for crypto agility and quantum safety. Read Mike Brown's full executive profile here.

What fields can quantum computers advance?