Quantum computers can process massive, complex datasets more efficiently and effectively than classical computers

Quantum computers has tremendous applications

With time, the tech will get democratised and trickle down to the consumer

There is a huge wave of research currently being done in the field of Quantum Computing. This research might just be the pioneering technological breakthrough that will enhance our future beyond what we can comprehend. Before we talk about what it is, lets get a bit of context.

Putting his pulse on the emerging trends, Gordon Moore, founder of Intel, figured that computing power would increase in power and decrease in cost exponentially with time. This became the basis of what is known as Moores Law, a golden rule for the electronics industry, and clarion call innovation. Since then Moores law has barely faltered in its unrelenting march. However, computing is now en route to hitting a wall.

Moores law is slowing down Computing power isnt increasing as quickly as it used to. Classical computers are turning out to be inefficient at solving many new problems like optimising multiple variables for decisions or simulating complex models.

These problems need computers to flip through multiple solutions and make myriad computations. Classical computers arent able to compute as quickly as these problems demand because they have to compute sequentially, or with limited parallelism

Most believe the way to overcome this barrier is by inventing a completely new paradigm of computing quantum computing.

What exactly is Quantum computing? Simply put, Quantum computers can process massive, complex datasets more efficiently and effectively than classical computers. In Classical computers, data for information processing is encoded into binary digits (bits) and have a value or state of either a 0 or 1.

In quantum computing, data is encoded in quantum bits (qubits) which can have values of 0, 1, or any quantum superposition of the two-qubit states. What this means is the bit can be both 0 and 1 at the same time.

Lets use a simple example to illustrate the potential. Imagine you have just gone grocery shopping and have bought 4 items of varying size. You also have one bag to place all four into. One has to select the most optimum way to fill the bag as to not damage the groceries.

Assuming you have no knowledge of which combination works and how the items interact with each other, it only makes sense for you to try all possible arrangements one by one and see which one gives you the best results.

But going through each arrangement one by one will take time, since there are 24 possible arrangements. What if you could have 24 helpers who could simultaneously fill up 24 bags with one of the arrangements and shout out the result to you?

Then you could find the optimal arrangement in the time of essentially filling one bag. Thats what a quantum computer allows you to do. It allows you to access all possible states and variables parallelly and not just sequentially.

I believe this power of Quantum Computers has tremendous applications. Over the next 5 decades, I believe we will reach an inflexion point of qubit capability. The initial machines will be accessible to enterprises, which will spawn an ancillary industry of complementary tools that provide easier interfaces to computers through classical computers.

With time, the tech will get democratised and trickle down to the consumer. An industry around QC software and algorithms will then have truly arrived.

As the number of qubits in quantum computers increase, we will first start seeing optimisation and data access problems being solved first. For example, with enough qubits, we could use quantum computers to assemble and sort through all possible gene variants parallelly and find all pairs of nucleotides the building blocks of DNA and sequence the genome in a very short period of time.

This would revolutionise the health industry as sequencing the DNAs at scale would allow us to understand our genetic makeup at a deeper level. The results of access to that kind of knowledge are unfathomable.

Next, through significant improvements in our quantum capacity, we will be able to use quantum computers for simulating complex systems and behaviours in near real-time and with high fidelity.

Imagine simulating the earths winds and waves with such accuracy so as to predict storms days before they come. Imagine simulating how the winds on a particular day would interact with a flight on a particular day and route it would allow us to measure turbulence, optimise flight paths, and better in advance.

Regardless of the path we take, Quantum Computing is here to stay. Its a key piece in the puzzle that is human growth. 10 years, 100 years, or maybe even a 1,000 years down, we will wonder how we lived without them.

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Quantum Computing: What You Need To Know - Inc42 Media

Sometimes youd be the only person in the world with this new piece of knowledge. Its a pretty wild feeling

Professor David Reilly

Its been said that quantum computing will be like going from candlelight to electric light in the way it will transform how we live. Quite a picture, but what exactly is quantum computing?

For the answer to that question, well have to visit a scale of existence so small that the usual rules of physics are warped, stretched and broken, and there are few layperson terms to lean on. Strap yourself in.

Luckily, we have a world-leading researcher in quantum computing, Professor David Reilly, to guide us. Most modern technologies are largely based on electromagnetism and Newtonian mechanics, says Reilly in a meeting room at the Universitys Nano Hub. Quantum computing taps into an enormous new area of nano physics that we havent harnessed yet.

With his youthful looks and laid-back demeanour, Reilly isnt how you might picture a quantum physicist. He has five Fender guitars (with not much time to play them), and a weakness for single malt Scotches. That said, science has never been far below the surface. As a child, he would pull apart flashlights to see how they worked. During his PhD years, knowledge was more important than sleep; he often worked past 3am to finish experiments.

Sometimes youd be the only person in the world with this new piece of knowledge. Its a pretty wild feeling. A good place to start the quantum computing story is with the humble transistor, which is simply a switch that allows, blocks or varies the flow of electricity, or more correctly, electrons. Invented in 1947, it replaced the large, energy-hungry vacuum tubes in radios and amplifiers, also finding its way into computers.

This off/on gate effect of transistors is the origin of the zeroes and ones idea in traditional (aka classical) computers. Ever-shrinking transistors are also how computers have gone from room-filing monsters to tiny devices in our pockets currently, just one square millimetre of computer chip can hold 100 million transistors.

Incredible, yes, but also unsustainable. With transistors now operating at the size of atoms, they literally cant get much smaller, and theyre now at a scale where the different, nanoscale laws of physics are warping and compromising their usefulness. At that scale, an electron stops behaving like a ball being stopped by the transistor gate, Reilly says. Its more like a wave. It can actually tunnel through or teleport to the other side, so the on/off effect is lost.

Quantum computing seeks to solve this problem, but it also promises a great leap forward. Its based on the idea that transistors can be replaced by actual atomic particles where the zeros and ones arent predicated on the flow or non-flow of electrons, but on the property or energy state of the atomic particle itself.

These particles can come from various sources (and are usually engineered in nanoscale devices) but theyre called collectively, qubits. Now things get trickier. Yes, tricker. Where a transistor can be either one or zero, its a weird fact of quantum physics, that a qubit can be one or zero at the same time, like a spinning coin that holds the possibility of both heads and tails.

For a single qubit, this doubles the one-andzero mechanism. And for every qubit added, the one/zero combinations increase exponentially.

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Quantum computing at the nanoscale - News - The University of Sydney

Article By : Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio

Quantum computers will make security mechanisms vulnerable to new types of cyberattacks a problem for both chip cards and complex technological systems...

Quantum computers will make current security mechanisms vulnerable to new types of cyberattacks a real problem for both chip cards and complex technological systems such as networked vehicles or industrial control systems. They have the potential to break the cryptographic patterns widely used in internet of things data communication systems.

With the advent of quantum computers, modern encryption algorithms are undergoing an evolution that will significantly change their current use. In order to support the security of the internet and other cryptographic-based technologies, it is necessary to increase mathematical research to build the cryptography of tomorrow, which is resistant to quantum attacks and will become known as post-quantum or quantum-resistant cryptography.

A quantum computer that could break cryptography would be a powerful tool for attackers, said Dr. Thomas Poeppelmann, senior staff engineer, Infineon Technologies.

According to the latest Thales Data Threat Report, 72 percent of the security experts surveyed worldwide believe that quantum computing power will affect data security technologies within the next five years. Robust and future-proof security solutions are therefore necessary. The potential threats are widespread, everything from the cars of the future to industrial robots.

IoT security

The modern use of cryptography aims to help ensure the confidentiality, authenticity, and integrity of the multiple data traveling in the IoT ecosystem, both the consumer and industrial one.

Security requirements of IoT devices can be very complex, said Poeppelmann. As a result, security cannot be achieved by a single technology or method. For example, a vendor has to consider aspects like secured software development, protected patch management, supply chain security, protection against physical attacks, trust and identity management, and secured communication.

Many companies, such as Infineon, are developing chip-based quantum security mechanisms. In particular, the applicability and practical implementation of quantum security cryptographic methods for embedded systems will be highlighted.

An IoT device has to check that a software update is really from the vendor and that it was not created by an attacker, said Poeppelmann. If the cryptographic methods used in an IoT device can be broken by an attacker, this would expose it to a lot of vulnerabilities. With quantum-safe cryptography, we want to provide our customers with cryptographic methods that are even protected against attacks using quantum computers. With our post-quantum technology, we aim to provide security in the long term and against very powerful attackers.

A classic computer attacker can use all the necessary means, such as artificial intelligence and increasingly powerful computers, to defeat security barriers.

Depending on the results and tasks, an attacker may be willing to spend several months of work to break a cryptographic pattern. Developers must provide maximum security that is accessible and easy-to-integrate solutions.

The security industry is developing cryptography that can be executed on cost-efficient classical computers or even tiny smart card chips while being guarded against even the most powerful attackers, said Poeppelmann.

He added, This situation is also applicable to the development of post-quantum cryptography that should withstand quantum computing power. The defender could still be implementing cryptography on classical computers and machines, while the attacker may use a quantum computer in the near future. Current approaches for so-called quantum-key distribution [QKD], where quantum technology is used to achieve confidentiality, are currently too expensive or too constraining, whereas current assessments of post-quantum cryptography prove that it could be quantum-safe as well as affordable. This is why we at Infineon focus on the development of post-quantum cryptography [PQC].

Security for IoT(Image: Infineon Technologies)

Large-scale QKD technology has already been tested in several countries to provide secure quantum protection to critical infrastructures.

Today, cryptography is used in many applications in automobiles and industrial control equipment. This aims to prevent the transfer of malware that could disrupt security systems and seriously endanger independent driving and production equipment.

Conventional encryption tools such as elliptical curve encryption are indestructible for todays computers. However, with constant progress in the development of quantum computers, many encryption algorithms may become ineffective in the near future.

Projects

The project Aquorypt will investigate the applicability and practical implementation of quantum-safe cryptographic methods for embedded systems. The project team evaluates procedures that have an adequate security level and implements them efficiently in hardware and software. The results could be used to protect industrial control systems with a long service life.

In the Aquorypt research project, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) will collaborate with researchers and industrial partners to develop new protection measures for the quantum computing era.

The project will first assess several new protocols and check if the new protocols are suitable for the use cases; i.e. industrial control and chip cards, said Poeppelmann. The best way to build a secured system is always a combination of appropriate software and hardware methods. However, some security goals cannot be achieved if the underlying hardware is not secured. Some bugs cannot be fixed by software alone.

Another project, PQC4MED, is focused on embedded systems in medical products. The associated hardware and software must allow the exchange of cryptographic procedures to counteract external threats. The solution will be tested in a use case in the field of medical technology.

In health-care applications, data privacy and data security are of particular importance, said Poeppelmann. Moreover, these devices have been in the field for a very long time so that software needs to be updated to comply with the latest regulations. As a consequence, it is important to first understand how suppliers of health-care devices could handle the threats caused by attacks using quantum computers. And secondly, [it is important] to research how they can implement software updates and software management mechanisms that allow [protection of] a device over its life cycle of more than 20 years. If the security of the update mechanism is low, an attacker will always take the path of least resistance and attack this component.

Infineon is working in this field for the development and standardization of New Hope and SPHINCS+ quantum security cryptographic schemes. New Hope is a key exchange protocol based on the Ring-Learning-with-Errors (Ring-LWE, or RLWE) problem.

Ring-LWE has been designed to protect against cryptoanalysis of quantum computers and also to provide the basis for homomorphic encryption. A key advantage of RLWE-based cryptography is in the size of the public and private keys.

SPHINCS+ is a stateless hash-based signature scheme based on conservative security assumptions.

Googles quantum computer

Conclusion

Cyberattacks on industrial plants could lead to the theft of knowledge about production processes or to tampering plants with a loss of production efficiency. Over time, electronic systems will become increasingly more networked and information security will play a key role.

As for security, post-quantum cryptography now mainly needs standards and awareness, said Poeppelmann. The standards are required to grant interoperability of different systems; e.g., an IoT device communicating with a cloud system. Device manufacturers, on the other hand, should be aware that quantum computers can become a real threat to their solutions security. They should assess future risks as properly [as possible] and implement appropriate security as early as possible.

In addition to security, a second factor in determining whether a cryptographic algorithm can be used in a given application environment is its efficiency. The performance takes into account not only processing speed but also memory requirements: key size, data expansion speed, signature size, etc. For example, schemes based on more structured mathematical problems tend to have reduced keys.

Quantum technology such as quantum computers or quantum sensors have different requirements for market adoption, said Poeppelmann. For the adoption of quantum computers, we need a computer that is really able to prove a benefit for real-world tasks (e.g., chemical analysis, AI, etc.) over currently used cloud methods. In general, it is important to raise awareness to foster market adoption of quantum-resistant cryptography. The threat is real, but with PQC, we have a migration path available.

Improving the strength of encryption remains a goal for many IT security experts. As computers become smarter and faster and codes become easier to decode, a more advanced encryption mechanism is more urgently needed.

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Securing IoT in the Quantum Age - Eetasia.com

As the director of a global research organization, I feel obligated to use all the resources of cutting-edge science and technology at our disposal to fight this scourge. As a father, I want a lasting solution, one that serves not just in this crisis, but the next. And, as an American and a Spaniard, with family in two hot spots, I want to help. Its as simple as that.

It started with a phone call to the White House on Tuesday, March 17, one that proved to be a catalytic moment for industry, academia and government to act together. This was the same week I received news from my mother that my cousin in Spain had tested positive for coronavirus. Shes a doctor and, just like all medical staff around the world right now, is on the front lines of the fight against this disease. This fight is personal for so many of us.

COVID-19 is deadly serious. This respiratory disease is triggered by a virus from the family of coronaviruses, which was identified in the 1960s but had never made such an assault on humanity. The virus prevents its victims from breathing normally, making them gasp for air. Fever, cough, a sore throat and a feeling of overwhelming fatigue and helplessness follow. Lucky ones recover within a few days; some show only mild or moderately severe symptoms. But some patients are not that lucky. Bulldozing its way through the body, the virus makes the lungs fill up with fluid, and may lead to a rapid death. No one is immune. While the elderly and those with underlying health conditions are more at risk, COVID-19 has taken the lives of people of all ages, some in seemingly good health. The disease is bringing our world to its knees.

But we are resilient, and we are fighting back with all the tools we have, including some of the most sophisticated supercomputers we have ever built. These machinesmore than 25 U.S.-based supercomputers with more than 400 petaflops of computing powerare now available for free to scientists searching for a vaccine or treatment against the virus, through the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium.

It was created with government, academia and industryincluding competitors, working side by side. IBM is co-leading the effort with the U.S. Department of Energy, which operates the National Laboratories of the United States. Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Hewlett Packard Enterprise have joined, as well as NASA, the National Science Foundation, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and six National LabsLawrence Livermore, Lawrence Berkeley, Argonne, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and Sandia, and others. And then there are academic institutions, including MIT; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; the University of Texas, Austin; and the University of California, San Diego.

The supercomputers will run a myriad of calculations in epidemiology, bioinformatics and molecular modeling, in a bid to drastically cut the time of discovery of new molecules that could lead to a vaccine. Having received proposals from all over the world, we have already reviewed, approved and matched 15 projects to the right supercomputers. More will follow.

But just a few days ago none of this existed.

On March 17, I called Michael Kratsios, the U.S. governments chief technology officer. Embracing the potential of a supercomputing consortium, he immediately started mobilizing his team, including Jake Taylor, assistant director for quantum information science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Jake called major U.S. players that have high-performance computers and invited them on board. From the IBM side, Mike Rosenfield, whose team has designed and built multiple generations of world-leading supercomputers, partnered with RPI, MIT and the key computing leaders of the U.S. National Laboratories. The U.S. Department of Energy has been a partner from the very beginning, at the heart of it all.

Within 24 hours of that first call, collaborators outlined what it meant to be involved. We brainstormed how we would communicate to research labs worldwide what we could offer in terms of hardware, software and human experts, and how we would get them to submit proposals, and get those matched with just the right supercomputer.

Forty-eight hours passed. On Thursday, March 19, we set up the scientific review committee and the computing matching committee to manage proposals. At least one person from each of the members of the consortium had to be part of the process, all acting fairly and equally. From IBM, Ajay Royyuru joined the merit review committee; he is the leader of our Healthcare and Life Sciences research and together with his team has long been developing novel technologies to fight cancer and infectious diseases.

Ajay, too, has a personal stake in fighting back against COVID-19. In January, his elderly father passed away following a pulmonary illness. Ajay shares his house with his 82-year-old mother, and he worries about keeping her safe from this risk, just like so many of us worry about our parents. His extended family in India is now also confronting the unfolding of the pandemic.

On March 22, less than a week after the first discussion with Kratsios, the White House announced the consortium. Everyone knew that the clock was ticking.

It is still very early days, but Ajay and other reviewers can clearly see from the first wave of proposals that scientists are trying to attack the virus on all frontsfrom drug discovery and development with AI-led simulations to genomics, epidemiology and health systems response. We need to understand the whole life cycle of this virus, all the gearboxes that drive ithow it encounters and infects the host cell and replicates inside it, preventing it from producing vital particles. We need to know the molecular components, the proteins involved in the virus biochemistrythen to use computational modeling to see how we can interrupt the cycle. That's the standard scientific methodology of drug discovery, but we want to amplify it.

The virus has been exploding in humans for months now, providing an abundance of samples for computer modeling and analysis. Scientists are already depositing them into public data sources such as GenBank and Protein Data Bank. There are many unknowns and assumptionsbut, Ajay tells me, a lot of proposals involve using the available protein structures to try and come up with potential molecular compounds that could lead to a therapeutic or a vaccine.

Thats already happening. Even before we formed the consortium, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee simulated 8,000 compounds and found 77 molecules that could potentially disarm the virus. But 77 is still a big number and running tests to find the correct molecule may take months. Here, my colleague Alessandro Curioni, an Italian chemist who heads IBM Research Europe and who had to self-isolate due to possible exposure to COVID-19, had an idea on how to speed things up.

In a conversation with European Commission executives in early March, Alessandro learned about an Italian pharmaceutical company, Domp Farmaceutici and the E.U.-financed project they were working on. Last week, he orchestrated a meeting between its scientists and Oak Ridge, suggesting to both parties that they submit a joint proposal to the consortium. Perhaps together, with the help of supercomputers, they can reduce the number of the promising compounds from 77 to 10, five and, finally, one.

Humanity has more tools at its disposal in this pandemic than ever before. With data, supercomputers and artificial intelligence, and in the future, quantum computing, we will create an era of accelerated discovery. The consortium is an example of a unique partnership approach, and it shows that the bigger the challenge, the more we need each other.

Read more about the coronavirus outbreakhere.

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Inside the Global Race to Fight COVID-19 Using the World's Fastest Supercomputers - Scientific American