Daily Archives: December 28, 2023

Scientists think they've created the first practical cryptographic algorithm that could protect data and communications from quantum computers.

However, other experts in the field remain skeptical, saying algorithms backed by a cutting-edge U.S.-government-funded lab have a better chance of being used widely.

Cryptography tools, like WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption, protect data like messages sent between two people by scrambling it into a secret code that only a unique digital key can unlock. If hackers intercept an encrypted message, all they'll see is jumbled-up nonsense. The hacker could try to guess the cryptographic key and decipher the message, but it would take the most powerful supercomputer millions of years to try every possible combination which these machines would perform one at a time.

Quantum computers, on the other hand, can perform several calculations at once. They aren't powerful enough to break cryptography yet, but scientists plan to develop increasingly powerful machines that could one day bypass this essential security layer within seconds.

Now, researchers say they've developed the most efficient quantum-safe proposal to date, based on existing so-called verifiable random function (VRF) technology, which they dub "LaV." They described their research in a paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, published Nov. 14 in the Cryptology ePrint Archive, a cryptology research preprint database.

VRF takes a series of inputs, computes them, and churns out a random number that can be cryptographically verified to be random. It's usually an add-on to encryption that boosts the security of digital platforms. It's an essential part of WhatsApp's key transparency protocol, as well as some blockchain systems.

But LaV is a quantum-safe version of VRF. Unlike its predecessor, it could theoretically provide end-to-end security from quantum computers, said lead researcher Muhammed Esgin, an information technology lecturer at Monash University in Australia.

Related link: Chinese researchers to send an 'uncrackable' quantum message to space

"Our algorithm is designed to withstand theoretical and practical attacks even by large-scale quantum computers (that can break today's classical cryptographic algorithms)," Esgin told Live Science in an email. "So it can protect against today's supercomputers as well as tomorrow's powerful quantum computers."

LaV can be accessed through the open-source platform GitLab. Its creators claim it's a practical solution, as opposed to four candidates backed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which has been hunting for a quantum encryption protocol for years. However, some experts disagree.

LaV may not be the best solution to the impending quantum threat, Edward Parker, a physical scientist with The RAND Corporation, told Live Science.

"There are several existing quantum-secure cryptography algorithms that already exist," he said, and NIST is standardizing these tools, "essentially giving those four algorithms the U.S. government's stamp of approval for widespread use."

"It's widely expected that these four algorithms will become the backbone of future quantum-secure cryptography, rather than LaV or any of the dozens of other quantum-secure algorithms that have been proposed," he added. "The four algorithms that NIST selected have undergone several years of very careful vetting, and we can be very confident that they are indeed secure."

Jonathan Katz, a computer scientist at the University of Maryland's Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS), also backsNIST's efforts. "The cryptography research community has been working on quantum-safe algorithms for well over two decades, and the NIST post-quantum cryptography standardization effort began in 2017," he told Live Science in an email.

However, Parker added that "it's certainly possible that LaV may be somewhat more efficient than other quantum-secure algorithms."

Vlatko Vedral, a professor of quantum information science at the University of Oxford, told Live Science he suspects LaV may not be the first algorithm of its type, though it may be the first released publicly.

"The industry is getting closer and closer to making a large-scale quantum computer, and it is only natural that various protections against its negative uses are being explored," Vedral said. "Code making and code breaking have always been locked into an arms race against each other."

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Scientists think they've created the world's 1st 'practical' quantum-secure algorithm - Livescience.com

WAKO, Japan, Dec. 27, 2023 Much of the progress so far in quantum computing has been done on so-called gate-based quantum computers. These devices use physical components, most notably superconducting circuits, to host and control the qubits. The approach bears similarity to conventional, device-based classical computers. The two computing architectures are thus relatively compatible and could be used together in hybrid. Furthermore, future quantum computers could be fabricated by harnessing existing technologies used to fabricate conventional computers.

But the Optical Quantum Computing Research Team at the RIKEN Center for Quantum Computing has been taking a very different approach. Instead of optimizing gate-based quantum computers, Atsushi Sakaguchi, Jun-ichi Yoshikawa and team leader Akira Furusawa have been developing measurement-based quantum computing.

Measurement-based quantum computers process information in a complex quantum state known as a cluster state, which consists of three (or more) qubits linked together by a non-classical phenomenon called entanglement.

Measurement-based quantum computers work by making a measurement on the first qubit in the cluster state. The outcome of this measurement determines what measurement to perform on the second entangled qubit, a process called feedforward. This then determines how to measure the third. In this way, any quantum gate or circuit can be implemented through the appropriate choice of the series of measurements.

Importantly, measurement-based quantum computation offers programmability in optical systems. We can change the operation by just changing the measurement, said Sakaguchi. This is much easier than changing the hardware, as gated-based systems require in optical systems.

But feedforward is essential. Feedforward is a control methodology in which we feed the measurement results to a different part of the system as a form of control, Sakaguchi said. In measurement-based quantum computation, feedforward is used to compensate for the inherent randomness in quantum measurements. Without feedforward operations, measurement-based quantum computation becomes probabilistic, while practical quantum computing will need to be deterministic.

The Optical Quantum Computing Research Team and their co-workers from The University of Tokyo, Palack University in the Czech Republic, the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales, Australia have now demonstrated a more advanced form of feedforward: nonlinear feedforward. Nonlinear feedforward is required to implement the full range of potential gates in optics-based quantum computers.

Optical quantum computers use qubits made of wave packets of light. At other institutions, some of the current RIKEN team had previously constructed the large optical cluster states needed for measurement-based quantum computation. Linear feedforward has also been achieved to construct simple gate operations, but more advanced gates need nonlinear feedforward.

A theory for practical implementation of nonlinear quadrature measurement was proposed in 2016.3 But this approach presented two major practical difficulties: generating a special ancillary state (which the team achieved in 20214) and performing a nonlinear feedforward operation.

The key advantages of this nonlinear feedforward technique are its speed and flexibility. The process needs to be fast enough that the output can be synchronized with the optical quantum state.

Now that we have shown that we can perform nonlinear feedforward, we want to apply it to actual measurement-based quantum computation and quantum error correction using our previously developed system, Sakaguchi said. And we hope to be able to increase the higher speed of our nonlinear feedforward for high-speed optical quantum computation.

But the key message is that, although superconducting circuit-based approaches may be more popular, optical systems are a promising candidate for quantum-computer hardware, he added.

The research was published in Nature Communications (www.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39195-w).

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Quantum Computers Begin to Measure Up | Research & Technology | Dec 2023 - Photonics.com

Neither dead nor alive yet

While quantum computing companies have said their machines could be doing amazing things in just a few years, some top experts say they don't believe the hype.

Meta's AI boss, Yann LeCun, made a splash after saying quantum computers are not that great. Speaking at a media event to mark ten years of Meta's AI team, he said the technology is "a fascinating scientific topic". Still, he was unsure of "the possibility of actually making useful quantum computers."

LeCun is not a quantum computing expert; other big names in the field also raise doubts. Oskar Painter, head of quantum hardware for Amazon Web Services, says there is a "tremendous amount of hype" in the industry right now and "it can be hard to tell the hopeful from the hopeless."

A big problem for today's quantum computers is that they make many mistakes. Some have said these so-called "noisy intermediate-scale quantum" (NISQ) machines could still work well. But Painter says that's not likely, and quantum error-correction tricks will be needed to make practical quantum computers.

The main idea is to spread information over unreliable qubits to make "logical qubits." But this could need as many as 1,000 dodgy qubits for each good one. Some have said that quantum error correction could be impossible, but that's not popular. Either way, making these tricks work at the size and speed needed is a long way off, Painter says.

"Given the remaining technical challenges in making a fault-tolerant quantum computer that can run billions of gates over thousands of qubits, it's hard to say when it will happen, but I would guess at least ten years away," he said.

In May, top Microsoft boffin Matthias Troyer penned a paper saying that quantum computers could only do better than regular computers in a few areas.

"We discovered over the last ten years that many things people have suggested don't work. And then we found some straightforward reasons for that."

The main point of quantum computing is to solve problems much faster than regular computers, but how much quicker depends. There are two things where quantum tricks seem to give a tremendous speed up, said Troyer.

One is breaking big numbers into smaller ones, which could crack the codes that keep the Internet safe. The other is copying quantum systems, which could help with chemistry and materials.

Quantum tricks have been suggested for optimisation, drug design, and fluid dynamics. But the speed-ups don't always work out--sometimes they are only a bit faster, meaning the time it takes the quantum trick to solve a problem is the square root of the time taken by the normal one.

Troyer says these speed-ups can quickly disappear because of the enormous amount of work quantum computers need. Running a qubit is much more complicated and slower than flipping a switch. This means that for more minor problems, an average computer will always be faster, and the point where the quantum computer takes the lead depends on how fast the normal one gets more challenging.

Troyer and his mates compared a single Nvidia A100 GPU against a made-up future fault-tolerant quantum computer with 10,000 "logical qubits" and gate times much faster than today's machines.

They found that a quantum trick with a bit of a speed-up would have to run for hundreds or thousands of years before it could beat a normal one on problems significant enough to matter.

Troyer said quantum computers will only work on small-data problems with huge speed-ups. "All the rest is nice theory but will not be useful," he said.

All this is pouring cold water on the idea that Quantum computers will be here soon or that the Internet is in danger of having its codes broken by thieves or spooks using the technology.

It would appear that, for now, the cat is still only potentially dead or alive.

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Experts warn quantum computers are overhyped and far away - Fudzilla

The threat posed by quantum computing is no longer a distant concern but an imminent reality. Experts believe so-called Q-Day, the point at which quantum computers will be able to break existing encryption algorithms, could be just a few years away.

The power of quantum computing offers huge social and economic benefits, as highlighted in the UK governments National Quantum Strategy, published in November 2023. However, the strategy emphasized that the technologys potential to undermine current cryptography used to secure internet data is a national security challenge that must be overcome to realise this potential.

It's fair to say that the threat is real, it could break the internet, Rob Clyde, Board Director at ISACA, told Infosecurity.

The implications of attackers being able to break current public key cryptography (PKC) algorithms, which provide secure sessions on browsers, secure transactions and digital signatures, are manifold, he explained.

It means you have the double threat of attackers being able to spy on data and inject signatures into the process, noted Clyde.

In addition, experts believe that threat actors are already leveraging quantum by undertaking harvest now, decrypt later attacks.

It is crucial that organizations are aware of the data security implications of advances in quantum computing and know how to mitigate this looming danger.

Governments and the tech industry are currently engaged in efforts to facilitate the migration towards post-quantum cryptography (PQC), aiming to have these encryption protocols rolled out widely before Q-Day strikes.

This will be a massive undertaking, given the scale and reliance on the internet.

The threat that quantum computers pose to current PKC standards is global and not something that any one organization can tackle on their own, commented Marc Manzano, General Manager of Quantum Security at SandboxAQ.

One of the most significant initiatives is the US National Institute of Standards and Technologys (NIST) publication of draft post-quantum cryptography (PQC) standards in August 2023. The draft documents outline three Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) and incorporate the four encryption algorithms NIST had previously selected to form its PQC standard.

The encryption algorithms selected include:

It is expected that the standards will become the global benchmark for quantum-resistant cybersecurity across the world in 2024.

Clyde said that once these draft standards become official open-source and proprietary software will begin implementing the algorithms rapidly.

He added that SSL certificates for websites will be quickly updated with the new algorithms.

The UKs National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) guidelines set out how organizations can migrate their systems to PQC based on the NIST standards.

Several industry-led entities focused on driving PQC awareness and adoption have also been created. This includes the PQC coalition, a body that aims to bring together industry, academia and governments.

Manzano explained: As of now [the coalition] has four dedicated workstreams focused on advancing standardization efforts, education, implementation and modernization of cryptography management, respectively.

NIST and other entities involved in this space have worked to homogenize security and interoperability with the new PQC algorithms and concepts. Nevertheless, Philip George, Executive Technical Strategist at Merlin Cyber,noted that even small-scale cryptographic transitions have proven to be complex undertakings to plan and execute.

The migration to PQC will be the largest cryptographic migration in the history of computing, so the potential for the loss of availability for affected systems remains high, he outlined.

Much of the migration will be completed automatically, for example in browsers. However, Clyde said that organizations implementing software must ensure they have a process for picking up the new algorithms as they come through.

The first step organizations should take is to educate themselves on the guidance offered by the entities involved in the development of quantum-secure cryptography. For example, George advised referencing the CISA/NSA Quantum-Readiness factsheet, which recommends organizations pull together key representatives across their risk management program to establish a quantum readiness project team.

Another crucial action that should be taken now is to build a cryptographic inventory. This requires identifying every instance of cryptographic assets within the IT infrastructure, whether embedded in applications, filesystems or elsewhere.

Manzano noted: This will enable compliance and governance teams to control what cryptography is being used while, at the same time, offer remediation alternatives for the identified vulnerabilities present in the systems.

George emphasized that this inventory of cryptographic dependencies should include organizations supply chains.

In addition, having an understanding of the cryptographic systems being used across an enterprises systems will help address the very live threat of harvest now, decrypt later attacks. Clyde noted that quantum computers will struggle to decrypt certain types of symmetric encryption algorithms currently available, particularly AES 256.

Theres no need to wait on this, look for reencryption programs that will quickly move you into quantum-resistant symmetric algorithms such as AES 256, advised Clyde.

Following the inventory and discovery process, organizations need to incorporate cryptographic agility into targeted assets and systems. Manzano noted that organizations that require high-speed, low-latency operations, such as financial institutions and telecommunications providers, may have concerns about the impact PQC algorithms will have on network performance, operations, cost and the user experience.

Being able to conduct accurate benchmarking can give these organizations deeper insights into which algorithms offer the best balance of performance and security, enabling them to make informed business decisions and solidify their corporate cryptographic policies, he said.

George added that taking these steps now will reduce the time and effort to shift from one cryptographic standard to another and introduce new standards seamlessly.

There will be a lot of announcements to come regarding quantum computing both in terms of the threat posed by this technology and the initiatives to protect against such dangers.

Clyde said it is vital all organizations keep a close eye on updates from tech firms involved in this space, such as IBM and Google. In particular, pay attention when they state they are close to building a quantum computer that can break existing encryption algorithms.

Pay attention to the makers of quantum computing so youre not caught off guard when a sudden breakthrough occurs, Clyde said.

He noted that this is what happened with AI, where many people were taken by surprise by the launch of OpenAIs ChatGPT generative AI tool in November 2022.

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How to Pave the Way for Quantum-Secure Encryption - Infosecurity Magazine

When it comes to the cyber and tech landscape, a storm is brewing one that threatens to dismantle the very fabric of our digital security. This storm is known as Q-Day, shorthand for the impending quantum computing era, when the capabilities of quantum computers will render even the most sophisticated encryption algorithms obsolete.

This quantum revolution is approaching at an alarming pace, possibly within the next few years, and it is imperative for governments and organizations across sectors to begin adapting and preparing in 2024.

The magnitude of this issue extends far beyond the confines of cyberspace it poses an existential threat to the protection of our most critical national security secrets and systems.

The scope of the problem reaches into the heart of our nation's security. Protecting critical assets such as infrastructure, healthcare systems, advanced weapons and intelligence assets becomes nearly impossible in the face of quantum advancements. It's not just about safeguarding data; it's about securing the very pillars that uphold the security and functionality of our society.

What should government agencies do to prepare in 2024?

In 2024, governments, as stewards of national security, must take the lead in acknowledging and addressing the quantum threat. This entails allocating resources for research, development and the implementation of strategies to counter the impending challenges posed by quantum computing.

The transition to a quantum-ready future revolves around the adoption of post-quantum cryptography and other quantum-resistant protocols. Unlike traditional cryptographic methods, PQC is designed to withstand the computational prowess of quantum computers. Embracing these protocols is not a choice but a necessity, a fundamental step towards ensuring the continued integrity of our digital systems.

Policies, like the Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act, that incentivize the adoption of quantum-resistant technologies are crucial to creating a resilient security framework.

How can the private sector help?

Companies and organizations, often on the front lines of technological integration, must recognize their role in this quantum paradigm shift. The need for major changes in security protocols is not just a suggestion; it's a mandate for survival in the digital age. Investing in the research and development of quantum-resistant technologies is not only a proactive approach but also a strategic imperative for long-term sustainability.

4 ways to prepare for the quantum threat In 2024

As we head into a new year, the imminent arrival of Q-Day demands our collective attention and immediate action. It's a call to arms for governments, companies, and organizations to adapt and prepare for a future where quantum computing reshapes the very foundations of cybersecurity. As the storm approaches, those who heed the warning and take proactive measures today will be the architects of a secure and resilient digital future. Q-Day is not a distant conceptit's the reality knocking on our digital doorstep, and our preparedness over the next year will determine the security landscape of tomorrow.

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4 steps to prepare for the coming quantum onslaught - Nextgov/FCW