Meet the Abu Dhabi cryptographer keeping your personal data safe – The National

With much of the world steeped in data, where everything from refrigerators and watches to cars and surgical tools are connected to the internet via cloud computing, cryptography - the basic building block of digital security - has never been more important.

Encryption is one of the fundamental applications of cryptography, which converts information into an unbreakable code, typically to prevent unauthorised access.

However, the rise of quantum computers, which are capable of breaking todays encryption protocols at a speed and scale beyond anything weve ever seen - according the Future Today Institute - threatens to upend decades of encryption, posing unprecedented national security threats worldwide.

The lab in Abu Dhabi cannot be found anywhere else in the world

Dr Najwa Aaraj, Cryptography Research Centre

The UAE, which announced plans to build a quantum computer last month, has joined some of the worlds biggest economies in also prioritising cryptography research - the first in the Middle East to do so.

The woman leading the UAEs cryptography plans says the level of research being conducted at the Abu Dhabi-based Technology Innovation Institute is unlike anywhere else in the world.

Speaking to The National, Dr Najwa Aaraj, who was appointed chief researcher at the Cryptography Research Centre at the Technology Innovation Institute last year, outlined her plans for the cutting-edge initiative that will give the UAE sovereignty over the future of its digital security.

I want the country to be known for this field, she said.

The Cryptography Research Centre is part of the Technology Innovation Institute in Masdar City, which focuses on applied research for Abu Dhabi government's Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC).

It is also one of the few centres of its kind to bring together theoretical and applied cryptographers from the public and private sector and from around the world.

Dr Aaraj, who got her PhD in information security from Princeton University in New Jersey, oversees the team of 50 and is actively hiring for about a dozen open positions.

We assembled a team of professionals from across the global cryptography community to investigate the current and future challenges of digital society and to respond with practical solutions, Dr Aaraj said.

She said the lab in Abu Dhabi cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

You get connected to the East, to the West, to the US, to Europe, and you can have really good collaboration. So at the end, the intellectual environment that I've had in Abu Dhabi and the UAE, I can confidently say, I haven't had it anywhere else, she said.

TII recently announced partnerships with Yale University in Connecticut and a board of advisors that hail from Radboud University in The Netherlands, Toulouse University and Computer Science at cole Normale Suprieure de Lyon in France and Ruhr-University in Germany.

I still work with Princeton with my advisor on few research topics, she added.

Last month, Dr Aarajs team introduced a software library to store algorithms capable of fighting off attacks in a post-quantum world.

Abu Dhabi's new library is a collection of algorithms to safeguard confidential data and information that aims to advance digital data security in the capital and the broader UAE.

TII's work focused on data confidentiality, integrity, authentication and privacy.

We have a very strong team here from Emirati talent and also global talent

Dr Najwa Aaraj

It was the second library of algorithms Dr Aarajs team has introduced. The first was the 'national sovereign' crypto library, which is currently being integrated into digital infrastructure and multiple systems in the country.

Dr Aaraj said it is critical these algorithms, which can safeguard the UAE's data in sectors like finance, defence and healthcare, are developed in-country and owned exclusively by the UAE.

Not having control over these data safeguards leaves nations vulnerable to an ever-increasing number of threats.

Abu Dhabi, which holds about 5.6 per cent of the worlds proven oil reserves, is positioning itself as a technology and industrial hub.

Earlier this month, Rashed Al Blooshi, undersecretary of Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development said the emirate is focused on a number of non-oil sectors including industry, agriculture, tourism, health and technology to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons.

Dr Aaraj is keen to support that mission, and confident she can deliver on growing the emirates technology sector.

We have a very strong team here from Emirati talent and also global talent. To actually be a hub and attract top experts in the field to come and work from here - Im sure this will happen.

Countries like the US, France, the UK and China are pouring billions of dollars into preparing for a post-quantum future.

Governments are vying to attract talent and investment ahead of the first real-world quantum use cases, according to the Future Today Institute, which outlined national efforts.

The US passed the National Quantum Initiative Act in 2018, earmarking $1.2 billion for quantum research and last year it rolled out five new quantum computing centres, including one at Brookhaven National Laboratory to build new nuclear, chemical and physics applications.

Ahead of the curve is the UK, which launched its National Quantum Technology programme in 2013 and is now in its second phase, with $1.3bn in investment. Germanys programme is funded at $2.4bn, according to the Future Today Institute.

Meanwhile, in China, a team of researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China published a paper in the journal Science describing their quantum computer achieving speeds that were 10 billion times faster than Googles Sycamore, which was the first to achieve quantum supremacy in October 2019.

Physicists at Google said at the time that their 53-bit quantum computer, named Sycamore, calculated something that an ordinary computer - even a very powerful one - simply could not have completed. Sycamore performed a challenging calculation in 200 seconds.

On the worlds current fastest traditional computer, that same calculation would have taken 10,000 years.

In February 2021, researchers from Google and quantum computing company D-Wave Systems solved a real-world challenge 3 million times faster than a classical computer.

Sundar Pichai with one of Google's quantum computers in the Santa Barbara lab. A quantum computer can reduce a calculation that would ordinarily take years to minutes. By processing a lot more information faster, they can evaluate many outcomes simultaneously, thereby increasing their calculating power exponentially. AFP

Quantum computers are able to process multiple possibilities at once, solving problems at a much faster rate. AP

A component of Google's Quantum Computer in the Santa Barbara lab. Todays computers function using something called bits, which are arranged in a combination of ones and zeroes. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or "qubits", which mean they are capable of solving calculations a traditional computer could never answer.. Reuters

Quantum computers are as fragile as they are complex. They require an ultra-cold environment to operate of just above zero Kelvin a unit of temperature which is minus 273. This helps keep the environment stable, with less energy and therefore less chance of the qubits flipping between states.EPA

Sundar Pichai and Daniel Sank with one of Google's Quantum Computers in the Santa Barbara lab. In late 2019, Google announced it had achieved "quantum supremacy". This means that its quantum computer became the first to solve a calculation in less than four minutes that would have taken the worlds most powerful supercomputer 10,000 years to complete. Reuters

Quantum computing could help solve everything from the mundane, such as finding the most efficient route, to huge breakthroughs in science, including creating new cancer treatments or possibly even finding a cure for cancer.They may even one day answer questions about the origins of the universe and address mysteries of space and time. Image: AFP

Quantum computers will also able to sort through reams of data on complicated subjects like climate change to predict how it will progress. AFP

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Meet the Abu Dhabi cryptographer keeping your personal data safe - The National