Julie Love discusses the merits of Microsoft's Q# programming language and the Quantum Developer Kit (QDK) alongside announcements from Ignite, including partnerships with Honeywell, IonQ, and QCI.

James Sanders spoke with Julie Love, senior director, Microsoft Quantum Business Development, at Microsoft Ignite 2019 in Orlando about Microsoft's role in quantum computing. The following is a transcript of the interview.

Julie Love: At Microsoft Quantum, we're all about quantum impact. Delivering solutions, helping our customers solve their toughest compute challenges by building the world's most scalable compute stack. It's really this ambition for scale that we took the next step on our quantum journey to deliver impact through announcing Azure Quantum. Azure Quantum is a full end-to-end open cloud ecosystem for quantum development, really bringing the tools of quantum computing to developers at organizations, people around the world.

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We're doing this building on the work that we've been doing on applications, solving tough problems like the ones that we solved with Case Western Reserve University that Satya Nadella talked about this morning, our work on quantum cryptography and post quantum cryptography to secure our data in a quantum world, building on Q#, our quantum native programming language in the quantum development kit, which has now been downloaded more than 200,000 times by developers around the world, and breakthroughs that we've had across devices, cryogenic controllers across the whole stack. We've announced Azure Quantum to bring this ecosystem to the world together with partners. We've partnered with IonQ, Honeywell, QCI, and 1QBit to bring the most diverse, most scalable quantum solutions across software solutions and hardware.

Cryptography is one of the areas where there's been a lot of excitement and talk because there's a notable quantum algorithm which will break modern cryptography. Microsoft is at the forefront of developing post quantum cryptographic solutions, so these are cryptographic protocols which are resistant to both classical and quantum attacks. I think it's hard to say when exactly that will be a reality. There is advancements happening every day across all elements of the stack. But, we look at it from a position, is if you believe that quantum is coming, which we do, we think it's important to get ahead of this technology. If you think that might be a possibility within the next decade, it's time for organizations to start implementing these quantum resistant protocols now, so ensuring that they have quantum agility to be able to shift their cryptographic systems to new protocols, and to start testing these systems in their environment today.

We've had quantum software efforts at Microsoft for a long time, and as we developed earlier systems that we used for programming scalable quantum computers, we discovered that we really needed a new language. And so, we developed a quantum-native language and it really understands the language of quantum mechanics. There's a lot of things that come with having a quantum native language that make it easier and more scalable for developers to develop for that language. For example, in quantum mechanics and quantum computing, all operations have to be reversible. And so, Q# has built in the mechanisms to take care of that for developers, and so you're not having to take care of that overhead for yourself. It's allowed us to create really a modern programming environment with the abstraction layers needed for developers to create durable, scalable code.

Our aim is also to make this incredibly accessible for developers. We see this as a need, not just to create a language for physicists working in the lab, but for programmers around the world. This goes back to the whole aspiration for impact. For us to achieve the impact that we want to have from quantum computing, we need this to be accessible for a whole range of people. Not just programmers, but domain experts in areas like quantum chemistry, material science, optimization. We've expanded on what we've offered with Q# and the quantum development kit to do integrations with languages like Python.

Classical computers will continue to play a huge role in the quantum future. If you think about the environment that we've deployed in Azure today, it's a highly heterogeneous compute fabric where you have CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs deployed at scale, and those are accelerators to the main core classical workloads. For the foreseeable future, we see quantum as being one of those acceleration options that will exist within Azure.

Image: James Sanders

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Originally posted here:
Microsoft: Creating quantum developer tools and delivering access to quantum systems - TechRepublic

NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --Unbound Tech, a global leader in software-defined cryptography, today announced a new partnership with Cryptosense, the leading supplier of security analysis software for cryptography, to further verify the security of its virtual HSM. Unbound Tech will leverage the Cryptosense Analyzer Platform (CAP) to perform automated, systematic penetration tests of its Unbound Key Control (UKC), a virtual HSM and key management solution, and Crypto-of-Things (COT) virtual crypto key management and security solution.

Through this partnership, Unbound Tech will utilize the Cryptosense Fuzzer, a mutation-based fuzzing engine, to test the Unbound Key Control (UKC) and Crypto-of-Things (COT) PKCS#11 implementations. By sending commands to a device's PKCS#11 interface and logging the responses, the Cryptosense Fuzzer will test traces of exchanges between an application and a cryptographic library to ensure these virtual appliances are properly secured in the event of a PCKS#11 API attackone of the most common attacks on HSM and Virtual HSM devices.

"Our software enables our customers to move securely to cloud cryptography services," said Graham Steel, CEO of Cryptosense. "CAP is the only tool on the market that provides everything you need for a secure and simple migration from start to finish. Our software looks inside a running application to see what cryptography is really being used, tests the use of the cloud crypto service to check for vulnerabilities and monitors the security of the migrated application in the cloud. By partnering with Unbound, we're able to reassure our customers of the continued security of their Virtual HSM and the applications that use it."

Testing with the Cryptosense Analyzer is the latest step in a series of third-party security validations in support of Unbound's virtual HSM. In early 2019, UKC also received FIPS 140-2 Level 1 and Level 2 certification from the U.S. National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). They are the first and only vendor to obtain FIPS 140-2 certification for a cryptographic module that spans multiple separate machines and uses secure multiparty computation (MPC) rather than relying on physical security measures to protect keys.

"There are often misconceptions around the level of security provided and benefits of protecting encryption keys with virtual appliances versus traditional HSMs," said Guy Peer, Co-founder at Unbound Tech. "The security provided by Unbound Key Control has now been industry tested and proven to be equal to, if not better, than that provided by a physical HSM. UKC is an operational and cost-friendly alternative to hardware that provides scalable key management and secure encryption from both physical and software-based attacks, while running on any existing physical or cloud infrastructure. With Cryptosense's stamp of approval, our clients can now feel more confident in adopting this approach to securing their sensitive information."

As a software-only solution, UKC offers unique benefits not common with physical HSMs - requiring minimal effort to setup, use and maintain in a variety of environments and application delivery models. All key management and user management operations are fully automated using the CLI or REST API, giving companies the ability to scale up or down, create partitions and users, register clients and revoke keys immediately across their entire global infrastructure from a single pane of glass.

Story continues

About Unbound Tech:

Unbound Tech equips companies with the first pure-software solution that protects secrets such as cryptographic keys, credentials or other private data by ensuring they never exist anywhere in complete form. The Unbound Distributed Trust Platform stands as a new foundation for trust using secure multiparty computation to ensure secrets are always split into multiple shares and thereby eliminate any single point of compromise. Adopted by Fortune 500 companies, Unbound's elastic and agile platform protects secrets on untrusted infrastructure and removes existing dependence on dedicated security hardware, delivering a novel approach to security and privacy designed for the digital era. Serving as an engine for uninhibited growth, it allows enterprises to gain new levels of control over their secrets on any cloud, server or endpoint, and opens new possibilities for digital innovation. Founded in 2014, Unbound has been recognized with numerous industry awards and named in multiple Gartner Hype Cycle Reports. Be Trusted. Be Unbound. Visit unboundtech.com.

About Cryptosense:

Cryptosense provides software to manage cryptography throughout an organization, enabling innovation and simplifying compliance. The Cryptosense Analyzer Platform discovers cryptography use inside applications and verifies use of secure hardware, both on-premise and in the cloud. Adopted by major financial institutions and payment infrastructure providers worldwide, Cryptosense is built on years of academic research. Customers use it to save time and money by automating audits, operate securely using cloud cryptography services, and integrate crypto testing into the CI/CD toolchain. For secure cryptography everywhere, visit Cryptosense.com.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/unbound-tech-partners-with-cryptosense-to-verify-security-of-virtual-hsm-300951473.html

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Unbound Tech Partners With Cryptosense to Verify Security of Virtual HSM - Yahoo Finance

This series looks back on the history of Bitcoin. Read part one here.

October 31, 2008 will forever hold a special place in the history of Bitcoin, for it was on that date that Satoshi Nakamoto announced the publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper. That moment in time will forever be when Satoshis original vision of Bitcoin was first set out, when Bitcoins creator began to define for the world what Bitcoin would become, and when its first detractor sought to redefine it for his own purposes.

At 2:10 p.m. EDT on October 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto made his announcement of the white paper to the cryptography email list where several experts had assembled to explore how their expertise might help solve the political problems of their time. Satoshis suggestion of a peer to peer system of electronic cash, not beholden to the whims of a trusted third party and allowing perfect accountability of funds, was immediately recognized as a great solution in the face of the Great Recession which was becoming an obvious threat at the time.

Dr. Craig S. Wright, who has since revealed himself to be Satoshi Nakamoto, has explained that he created Bitcoin as a better method of transaction than what had existed at the time: the banking system that had failed the world with a lack of transparency.

The first person to respond to the Bitcoin whitepaper would forever start a debate on what Bitcoin should be. James A Donald, on November 2, 2008, questioned how big of a network would be needed to create a world where Bitcoin was the dominant currency. Satoshi explained that the secret to Bitcoins future success could be found in scaling:

Long before the network gets anywhere near as large as that, it would be safe for users to use Simplified Payment Verification (section 8) to check for double spending, which only requires having the chain of block headers, or about 12KB per day.

The bandwidth might not be as prohibitive as you think. A typical transaction would be about 400 bytes (ECC is nicely compact). Each transaction has to be broadcast twice, so lets say 1KB per transaction. Visa processed 37 billion transactions in FY2008, or an average of 100 million transactions per day. That many transactions would take 100GB of bandwidth, or the size of 12 DVD or 2 HD quality movies, or about $18 worth of bandwidth at current prices.

If the network were to get that big, it would take several years, and by then, sending 2 HD movies over the Internet would probably not seem like a big deal.

Bitcoin became the hot topic of the cryptography mailing list, representing 32 of the 68 emails sent to the list in November 2018. Hal Finney showed his support for the idea, writing, Bitcoin seems to be a very promising idea, but he wanted to see the code before making any final decisions. Others, still not fully grasping the idea, suggested that it might be vulnerable to outside attacks.

But the bulk of the conversation was between Satoshi and James A Donald, his first rival. Donald questioned the viability of Simplified Payment Verification (SPV). He suggested networks would never be able to handle the bandwidth of Bitcoin transactions, suggesting Bitcoin be like a settlement layer to other transactions (much like what the Lightning Network has been developed to be). He questioned how a blockchain could work around the problem of double-spends.

In response, Satoshi patiently explained to him how each piece works. He explained that the distributed ledger was a natural defense against brute force attacks and government intervention. He explained how the blockchain works to weed out double spends. And of course, he had confidence in his original design to scale massively, solving the problems Donald thought hed avoid with a settlement layer.

In Donalds eyes, Satoshi hadnt figured out what the full picture of Bitcoin should be. He dismissively wrote on November 15, I really should provide a fleshed out version of your proposal, rather than nagging you to fill out the blind spots.

At the time, Satoshi was polite about it, with maybe one exception where he summarized Donalds argument as a lengthy exposition of vulnerability. Even when Donald was at his most dismissive, Satoshi offered to share his work and teased the upcoming launch of Bitcoin, noting his faith in his year and a half of work on the project.

But in the years that have followed, Dr. Craig Wright has expressed his true feelings during those fateful weeks after the white papers release. He was trying to make a better system of money, and Donald was fearful of government intervention. Donald wanted a censorship resistant and anonymous form of money, which Wright has since linked to Donalds seedier history with child pornography. Wright wantedtraceable money. Donald wanted to disappear from the radar of the law.

Everything found in this November 2008 exchange, as these cryptography experts explored what the Bitcoin white paper could be, have come to define the history of Bitcoin that followed. Wright mined the Genesis Block on the January 3 of 2009 and released the first version of the Bitcoin software a few days later on January 9, giving birth to Bitcoin. The original vision of Bitcoin, using the ticker symbol BSV, has stuck to the original whitepaper and views that Satoshi expressed in the weeks that followed. It scales to the needs of the world, and does everything the white paper promised it would.

BTC was created from those who would have argued with Satoshi in November 2009. The BTC developers seek to guard it against governments rather than work with them, and focus on the anonymous nature they believe it should have. Crucially, they refuse to allow it to scale, limiting its usage and think by doing so it will remain as a store of value for those who wish to pursue illicit activity.

October 31, 2008 will forever be the birthday of Bitcoin, which now only lives as BSV. Its the only coin the Satoshi of 2008 would recognize as his creation.

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The origins of Bitcoin: Satoshi's Vision - CoinGeek

Binance has grown to be one of the firms which have taken the lead in innovation in the field of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. It has focused on creation of core infrastructure services that would have a long-term effect on the crypto world. Binance has also made contributions to the Binance Chain blockchain software system and is now planning to do the same w.r.t. open-source ecosystem. The contributions of the open-source community have already been recognized and acknowledged in the crypto and blockchain realm. Binance has taken the first step towards making a mark in this field by launching the open-source implementation of a Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS) library for Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA). This will be of immense benefit to Wallet providers and custodians as they will be able to bypass single points of failure in private keys via distributed key management. With this implementation, Binance moves a step closer to providing better security of funds while at the same time generating greater awareness about Binance chain, Binance networks and so on.

Changpeng Zhao mentioned in a recent tweet about this as:

TSS is a cryptographic protocol used for signing and distributed key generation and enables users to outline a flexible threshold policy. This technology helps in substituting the signing commands with distributed computations so that one can avoid obstruction if the private key fails. In the case of individuals, threshold signatures enable the splitting of the signature between two or more devices. This poses a lower degree of risk because even if one device is compromised, the assets would not be adversely affected altogether. Threshold signatures also enable access control policies to be realized in their full potential which minimizes the chances of insider or outsider theft of corporate funds in case of corporate users. Unlike the convention Multisig (multi-signature), which uses cryptography on-chain, the TSS uses cryptography off-chain. The advantage here vis-a-vis the on-chain is that this technique causes a higher consumption of resources, and signers can also become potential attack surfaces as they are left open in the blockchain network.

There are certain steps to be followed to complete the signing process for TSS, and the TSS library has been integrated with the Binance Chain blockchain to provide a complete guide. A few of the steps are:

Binance has just started its work with TSS and this seems to be only the beginning of this association. It has plans to continue this work in the future and also integrate with the Binance Chain community which would help to advance greater TSS support for higher-level use cases. Cryptocurrency and blockchain is a growing field, and Binance intends to continue its association with the community to create, develop and sustain a healthy and holistic open-source ecosystem on cryptography, which would help in the further development of this already dynamic field.

Read more here:
Binance is on Its Way of Implementing a Threshold Signature Scheme Library for Elliptic Curve Digital Sign ... - CryptoNewsZ

- Volvo emerges as the first car manufacturer to implement blockchain technology

- A blockchain is a digital ledger containing a list of records linked to each other via cryptography

- In this case, data in the blockchain includes the cobalts origin along with its weight and size

Swedish car manufacturer, Volvo claims to be the first car manufacturer to implement global traceability of cobalt used in its batteries by applying blockchain technology. The new announcement comes at a time when the company has introduced its first fully electric car, the XC40 Recharge. Volvo further states that traceability of raw materials used in the production of lithium ion batteries, such as cobalt, is one of the main sustainability challenges faced by car makers.

For the uninitiated, a blockchain is a digital ledger containing a list of records linked to each other via cryptography. Within supply chains, the technology creates records of transactions which cannot be changed, while also enforcing a common set of rules for what data can be recorded. This allows participants to verify and audit transactions independently. In this particular case, data in the blockchain includes the cobalts origin, attributes such as weight and size, the chain of custody and information establishing that the participants behaviour is consistent with OECD supply chain guidelines.

The blockchain technology establishes a transparent and reliable shared data network. Volvo cars claim that the technology significantly boosts transparency of the raw material supply chain as the information about the materials origin cannot be changed undetected. The company has reportedly entered into an agreement with two global battery suppliers, CATL of China and LG Chem of South Korea, and leading global blockchain technology firms to implement traceability of cobalt starting this year.

Technology firms Circulor and Oracle operate the blockchain technology across CATLs supply chain, while the Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network (RSBN), together with responsible sourcing specialists RCS Global and IBM, is rolling out the technology in LG Chems supply chain.

Speaking on the occasion, Martina Buchhauser, Head of Procurement at Volvo Cars, said, We have always been committed to an ethical supply chain for our raw materials. With blockchain technology we can take the next step towards ensuring full traceability of our supply chain and minimising any related risks, in close collaboration with our suppliers.

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Volvo Cars implement blockchain technology for global traceability of cobalt used in batteries - CarWale