Classical Computing Embraces Quantum Ideas

"Thinking quantumly" can lead to new insights into long-standing problems in classical computer science, mathematics and cryptography, regardless of whether quantum computers ever materialize

Courtesy of IBM Research

FromSimons Science News(find original story here).

Someday, quantum computers may be able to solve complex optimization problems, quickly mine huge data sets, simulate the kind of physics experiments that currently require billion-dollar particle accelerators, and accomplish many other tasks beyond the scope of present-day computers. That is, if they are ever built. But even as daunting technical challenges keep the dream at bay, theorists are increasingly putting the ideas and techniques of quantum computing to work solving deep, long-standing problems in classical computer science, mathematics and cryptography.

There are quite vigorous debates about whether quantum computers will ever actually be built, said Chris Peikert, a cryptographer and computer scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology. But thats a separate question from whether quantum techniques or quantum algorithms can help you solve problems in new ways.

In recent years, quantum ideas have helped researchersprove the securityof promising data encryption schemes called lattice-based cryptosystems, some applications of which can shroud users sensitive information, such as DNA, even from the companies that process it. A quantum computing proof also led toa formula for the minimum length of error-correcting codes, which are safeguards against data corruption.

Quantum ideas have also inspired a number of important theoretical results, such asa refutation of an old, erroneous algorithmthat claimed to efficiently solve the famously difficult traveling salesman problem, which asks how to find the fastest route through multiple cities.

If it only happened once it would be a coincidence, but there are so many instances when we think quantumly and come up with a proof, said Oded Regev, a computer scientist at New York University.

This recurring theme has led some researchers to argue that quantum computing is not an esoteric subfield of computer science, but rather a generalization of classical computing, in much the same way that polygons are a generalization of triangles. Just as polygons can have any number of sides while triangles only have three, quantum computers can perform operations represented by any numbers (positive or negative, real or imaginary), while operations on classical computers use only nonnegative real numbers.

As the more general case, quantum ideas are a powerful tool in developing more specific classical computing proofs. There area number of classical problemsthat have nothing to do with quantum, but that are most easily analyzed by generalizing to the quantum level, proving something using quantum information theory, and scaling back the result to the classical level, said Ronald de Wolf, a theoretical computer scientist at the Dutch Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science.

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Classical Computing Embraces Quantum Ideas

Japan: ‘Bitcoin isn’t a currency’

Without any regulatory or government oversight, the government forbids commercial banks to provide customers with the cryptocurrency.

The popular virtual currency Bitcoin isn't actually a currency, according to the Japanese government.

The country's cabinet approved an official document on Thursday that stated, "Bitcoin isn't a currency" and therefore won't be regulated as such, according to The Wall Street Journal. Additionally, commercial banks are forbidden from providing the digital currency to customers.

The main rub for the Japanese government is that Bitcoin isn't regulated by any official body. And, it's unclear which ministry would provide oversight of the cryptocurrency and how that ministry would go about putting regulations in place.

The government didn't rule out the idea of creating regulatory framework for virtual currencies but did say if this were to be done it'd have to be in conjunction with other countries.

The prominent Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox went offline last month and then filed for bankruptcy after it was revealed that hackers stole nearly $500 million in bitcoins through a weakness in the company's system. Bitcoin bank Flexcoin also announced this week that it was shutting down after being hacked.

Despite these hurdles, Bitcoin is still trading on several other exchanges and coin prices currently range from $400 to more than $4,000.

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Japan: 'Bitcoin isn't a currency'

Third cryptocurrency exchange becomes hacking victim, loses Bitcoin

Summary: Following Mt. Gox and Flexcoin, Poloniex has admitted to losing over 10 percent of customer funds due to cyberattacks.

Yet another cryptocurrency has come forward and admitted that security and system problems have led to customer funds being pinched by hackers.

Poloniex, a Bitcoin trading post similar to Mt. Gox, has lost 12.3 percent of the Bitcoin stored in hot wallets on the website. However, in stark contrast to how Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles handled his company's Bitcoin losses, the owner of Poloniex, Tristan D'Agosta -- a.k.a. Busoni -- admitted to the loss and asked users how they would like to be compensated.

In a forum post, Busoni said that a hacker took advantage of a processing flaw in the Bitcoin exchange post. When users submit a withdrawal request, the input is checked against your balance, deducted, and the new amount recorded within a database. However, it was discovered that placing several withdrawals all in practically the same instant meant each request was processed at more-or-less the same time, resulting in a negative balance but "valid insertions into the database, which then get picked up by the withdrawal daemon."

According to the Poloniex chief, auditing and security features were not explicitly looking for negative balances, and so the transactions were allowed to proceed. Busoni admitted that another "design flaw" contributed to the theft, as "this could not have happened if withdrawals requests were processed sequentially instead of simultaneously."

Trading was frozen following the discovery of unusual activity, and Busoni says he takes "full responsibility" for the missing 12.3 percent of Bitcoin -- believed to be worth roughly $50,000.

"If I had the money to cover the entire debt right now, I would cover it in a heartbeat." Busoni admitted. "I simply don't, and I can't just pull it out of thin air."

So, to keep everyone from withdrawing their BTC in order to not be left with picking up the debt, everyone's wallet on the trading post has been "temporarily be deducted by 12.3 percent."

"Please understand that this is an absolute necessity -- if I did not make this adjustment, people would most likely withdraw all their BTC as soon as possible in order to make sure they weren't left in that remaining 12.3 percent," Busoni said. "Aside from the obvious drawback of most of the BTC being taken out of the exchange, this would not be fair -- some people would get all of their money right away, and a few would get none right away."

The amounts deducted have been recorded, and the Poloniex chief says that funds will be raised from exchange fees -- and his own pocket -- to try and cover the debt and redistribute funds to users who have had Bitcoin deducted.

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Third cryptocurrency exchange becomes hacking victim, loses Bitcoin

Survey: IT pros not concerned about NSA spying

You may have heard that the NSA has been spying on just about everyone, everywhere without regard for whether or not they are an actual threat to national security. The allegation that RSA accepted a payment of $10 million in exchange for cooperating with the NSA led some to boycott the recent RSA Conference, or participate in the TrustyCon counter-conference that was hosted around the corner. As it turns out, though, most IT professionals dont seem all that concerned with the activities of the NSA.

AppRiver conducted a survey of the attendees at the RSA Conference.AppRivers Fred Touchette describes ina blog posthow the boycott and the apparent success of TrustyCon piqued his interest about where government hacking ranks on the overall threat landscape for IT professionals.

IT professionals are much more concerned with hackers than government spying.

We decided to do a face to face survey with conference attendees one on one to ask them a few simple questions about these issues compile the data and see what is on people's minds," Touchette explains. "These are people that deal with security every day, whose jobs depend on keeping networks secure, and who use threats as a practical problem not [as] theoretical or philosophical issues.

The AppRiver survey only includes responses from about 110 peopleout of a total attendance of about 25,000so it doesnt qualify as a scientifically relevant sampling. Nevertheless, the results are interesting.

What AppRiver discovered is that only a meager5.3 percent of respondents ranked external threats from government hacking attempts as the top threat. Government spying, like that conducted by the NSA, ranked at the bottom of the survey results, tied with malicious insidersauthorized individuals like Edward Snowden who intentionally compromise or expose data.

A third of the respondents cited the insider threat without malicious intent as the top threat. In other words, random users compromising data or putting the network at risk by circumventing security controls, ignoring security policies, or just plain human error.

The biggest concern by far, though, remains external hackers. More than 56 percent of the survey respondents cited evil bad guys on the outside of their network trying to infiltrate and infect their PCs as their number one security concern.

Interestingly, regardless of what is considered to be the top threat, nearly three fourths of those surveyed believe that people are most frequently the weak link in the security chain that leads to network or endpoint compromise. More than 20 percent claim that faulty policies are to blame, while only 7.2 percent fault technology as the point of failure.

The debate over government intelligence gathering is far from over. But, according to AppRivers unscientific survey of IT security professionals, the ethics and legality of NSA activities is simply not part of the day-to-day concern when it comes to defending against malware and cyber attacks.

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Survey: IT pros not concerned about NSA spying

IT Pros Not Concerned About NSA Spying

PC World You may have heard that the NSA has been spying on just about everyone, everywhere without regard for whether or not they are an actual threat to national security. The allegation that RSA accepted a payment of $10 million in exchange for cooperating with the NSA led some to boycott the recent RSA Conference, or participate in the TrustyCon counter-conference that was hosted around the corner. As it turns out, though, most IT professionals don't seem all that concerned with the activities of the NSA.

[ 15 Ways to Make Sense of Calls for NSA Reform ]

[ A Look at the Fallout From the 2013 Snowden Leaks ]

AppRiver conducted a survey of the attendees at the RSA Conference.A AppRiver's Fred Touchette describes inA a blog postA A how the boycott and the apparent success of TrustyCon piqued his interest about where government hacking ranks on the overall threat landscape for IT professionals.

"We decided to do a face to face survey with conference attendees one on one to ask them a few simple questions about these issues compile the data and see what is on people's minds," Touchette explains. "These are people that deal with security every day, whose jobs depend on keeping networks secure, and who use threats as a practical problem not [as] theoretical or philosophical issues."

The AppRiver survey only includes responses from about 110 people--out of a total attendance of about 25,000--so it doesn't qualify as a scientifically relevant sampling. Nevertheless, the results are interesting.

What AppRiver discovered is that only a meagerA 5.3 percent of respondents ranked external threats from government hacking attempts as the top threat. Government spying, like that conducted by the NSA, ranked at the bottom of the survey results, tied with malicious insiders--authorized individuals like Edward Snowden who intentionally compromise or expose data.

A third of the respondents cited the insider threat without malicious intent as the top threat. In other words, random users compromising data or putting the network at risk by circumventing security controls, ignoring security policies, or just plain human error.

The biggest concern by far, though, remains external hackers. More than 56 percent of the survey respondents cited evil bad guys on the outside of their network trying to infiltrate and infect their PCs as their number one security concern.

Interestingly, regardless of what is considered to be the top threat, nearly three fourths of those surveyed believe that people are most frequently the weak link in the security chain that leads to network or endpoint compromise. More than 20 percent claim that faulty policies are to blame, while only 7.2 percent fault technology as the point of failure.

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IT Pros Not Concerned About NSA Spying

james_clapper_us_spying_reuters.jpg

March 07, 2014

Lead counsel Ken Cuccinelli (left) confers with US Senator Rand Paul (centre) during a news conference about their class action lawsuit against US President Barack Obama over NSA spying revelations, outside the US District Court in Washington February 12, 2014 which also named James Clapper as a defendant. The proposed 2015 budget will see a five percent drop in US intelligence agencies after a year marked by controversy over far-reaching electronic spying. Reuters pic, March 7, 2014. US intelligence agencies will see a five percent drop in funding under a proposed 2015 budget, officials said yesterday, after a year marked by controversy over far-reaching electronic spying.

Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper said the requested budget for most of the country's 17 spy services came to US$45.6 billion (RM148 billion) for fiscal year 2015, which begins October 1.

The proposed budget, which must be approved by Congress, is lower than the 2014 national intelligence program budget, at US$48.2 billion.

The Pentagon is also planning for a slight drop in funding for intelligence activities that support the military, requesting US$13.3 billion for next fiscal year, officials said.

The 2014 budget had allocated US$14 billion for the military intelligence program.

In keeping with past practice, Clapper's office, or ODNI, did not divulge any further details or provide a breakdown of the budget.

"Any and all subsidiary information concerning the National Intelligence Program budget, whether the information concerns particular intelligence agencies or particular intelligence programs, will not be publicly disclosed," ODNI said in a brief statement.

Given the secrecy surrounding America's spy agencies and their funding, it remains unclear if the fallout from ex-intelligence contractor, Edward Snowden's leaks has had any impact on the National Security Agency's 2015 budget.

The trove of classified files disclosed by Snowden since June included documents leaked to The Washington Post that shed some light on the so-called "black budget" that funds for different spy operations and programs.

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james_clapper_us_spying_reuters.jpg