The quantum cryptography arms race has begun
The quantum cryptography arms race has begun
By Roger A. Grimes
Created 2014-06-24 03:00AM
I've been fascinated by quantum computing and quantum
cryptography for many years. Quantum computing promises to give us much faster
computers, while quantum cryptography promises unbreakable crypto.
While the theory of quantum computing has been around since
the early 1980s, creating widely usable quantum computers and systems has
proven devilishly difficult. Scientists make incremental improvements every
year and promise usable quantum systems in a decade's time. The barriers are
both technical and market-driven.
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Quantum obstacles
On the technical side, quantum computers are still fairly
crude. No one has come remotely close to building a quantum computer that is as
fast as a traditional, binary computer.
Quantum computers work using computation units known as
quantum bits (qubits), which can represent a multitude of states, whereas
traditional computers work on binary circuits, which only have two states (0 or
1). Very basic computers made up of only a few or handful of qubits have been
demonstrated, although Google is working with D-Wave Systems [4] to produce a
quantum computer with 512 qubits.
Another problem is the cost. Anything with the name
"quantum" attached has been traditionally very expensive to create
and involves very large, specialized equipment. On top of this, most of the
world doesn't seem to think it yet needs quantum computers. Crypto giant Bruce
Schneier said as much (and more) in his infamous 2008 post on the topic [5].
Bruce correctly stated that the weakest part of any existing crypto system is
not the cryptography ciphers, but everything around it.
When quantum computing really gets going, it will
probably create a security crater with existing traditional public key ciphers.
You see, most of today's public key cryptography (Diffie-Hellman [6], RSA [7],
ECC [8], and so on) protects users only because large prime numbers are very
hard to factor (known as the discrete logarithm problem). Most quantum
scientists believe that quantum computers will be able to quickly factor large
prime numbers.
When this happens, every enciphered communication's
pathway that depends on public key encryption for its protection will be broken
[9]. To be clear, quantum computers can best break public (asymmetric) ciphers
that rely on the discrete logarithm problem. It can't as easily break
traditional symmetric ciphers, such as AES. But asymmetric ciphers are most
often used to pass around the (the supposedly secret) symmetric keys. By
breaking the asymmetric cipher, the secret key becomes public.
When quantum computers finally break traditional
asymmetric ciphers (assuming this hasn't been done already), one of the best
protections will be quantum encryption. Other ciphers might be as resilient against
quantum cipher hacking, but quantum's "fuzzy entanglement" property
offers an awesome defense: If an unauthorized party observes the protected data
while it's being transmitted, the photon pairs change in such a way as to make
the protected message still unreadable, and the authorized parties will know
that an unauthorized attempt was made.
If this sounds implausible, bone up on your quantum
mechanics. It will blow your mind and hurt your head.
The race for the qubit
It is this coming quantum war -- quantum for good or
evil? -- that has many of the world's top scientists working on quantum
computing and encryption.
I recently talked with one of its warriors, Dr. Duncan
Earl, founder and CTO of Qubitekk [10]. After 20 years with Oak Ridge National
Laboratories, he formed Qubitekk (formerly known as GridCOM Technologies) two
years ago.
Qubitekk has two strategies. One is to make cheaper and
more elegant quantum computing components and systems. To that end, anyone can
buy the company's QES1 unit, which at 8 inches is capable of creating 10,000
entangled photons (the basic building blocks of quantum computing) per second
per millwatt. This portable, plug-and-play device can put quantum particles
into the hands of any user, whereas it once took very large machinery and a
huge lab.
Dr. Earl was circumspect about his QES1 device: "I'm
sure one day these devices will be much smaller and cheaper, and we will laugh
about what we have now. But for now it's a big jump over what we used to have
to work with."
"Cheaper" is a relative term. We won't be
buying these for our kids for Christmas (yet). I didn't ask Dr. Earl about
exact costs, but he indicated it was well within the price range for national
laboratories, universities, and industrial companies.
Qubitekk's long-range plans involve making more
plug-and-play quantum computer components and creating systems that allow
wide-scale use over large geographic ranges. Most quantum networks are simple
point-to-point networks, but Qubitekk has figured out how to create distributed
spoke-and-wheel networks with many, many participating nodes. Dr. Earl discussed
how his products could be applied to a power company with hundreds of thousands
of wireless smart meters distributed over hundreds of miles.
I started my interview as my typical overly critical
self, but I came away trusting Dr. Earl and his company's vision. I've talked
to a lot of vendors over the years, mostly about selling their product, but Dr.
Earl's honest explanations of the technology and its challenges was impressive.
He excited me about what could be accomplished now. If I could afford it, I'd buy
one or two of those QES1 units immediately and start playing with them.
I ended my conversation with Dr. Earl asking why he was
building quantum computing components when most of the market he was trying to
appeal to didn't have the need yet. After all, traditional crypto works
perfectly well for most industries.
"I agree, traditional cryptography is fine for the
moment," Dr. Earl responded. "But one day public key ciphers will
fall, and when that day happens, we're going to need quantum cryptography to
protect us. We are starting to look at the real problems and how to integrate
and produce real solutions. Many industries are going to need quantum
protection earlier than others, and when they do we want to be one of the
solutions."
This story, "The quantum cryptography arms race has
begun [11]," was originally published at InfoWorld.com [12]. Keep up on
the latest developments in network security [13] and read more of Roger Grimes'
Security Adviser blog [14] at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology
news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter [15].
Security Encryption Security
Source URL (retrieved on 2014-06-26 11:20AM):
http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/the-quantum-cryptography-arms-race-has-begun-244907
Links:
[1] http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/quantum-cryptography-the-last-best-defense-225665?source=fssr
[2]
http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-central/download-the-encryption-deep-dive-report-390?source=ifwelg_fssr
[3]
http://www.infoworld.com/newsletters/subscribe?showlist=infoworld_sec_rpt&source=ifwelg_fssr
[4]
http://googleresearch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/launching-quantum-artificial.html
[5]
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/10/quantum_cryptog.html
[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie–Hellman_key_exchange
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_(cryptosystem)
[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_curve_cryptography
[9]
http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/quantum-cryptography-the-last-best-defense-225665
[10] http://qubitekk.com/
[11]
http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/the-quantum-cryptography-arms-race-has-begun-244907?source=footer
[12] http://www.infoworld.com/?source=footer
[13] http://www.infoworld.com/d/security?source=footer
[14] http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/blogs?source=footer
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