Quantum computers are much more powerful than devices we are used to and can perform well in various areas of life. At the same time, hacking with their help can instantly bring down digital systems in critical infrastructures. Even quantum-resistant blockchains have emerged.
Quantum Technologies
Quantum technologies (quantum computers, quantum communications, and quantum sensors) are gradually moving out of laboratories and into the real world. New scientific discoveries are helping to promote and commercialize the technology.
MIT included the quantum internet in the top 10 breakthrough technologies of 2020. Even today, anyone can get cloud access to IBM's quantum computer. Its developers believe that in this way, you can find many different applications of the new technology and accelerate its development.
It is assumed that quantum computers will surpass classical ones in many ways. They will bring incredible results in medicine, industry, and other sectors.
At the same time, such power will open the way for unprecedented cybercrimes. Asymmetric cryptography is most often used to protect data in many areas, but it is unstable to attacks involving a quantum computer.
Quantum hacking will bring down all the usual digital systems in telecommunication, IT, banking, medicine, and other critical infrastructures.
Interfering with digital operations using quantum computers may seem like an episode from the future. However, attackers can steal data now and decrypt it later when innovative computing technology leaves laboratories for private use.
Today, various industries are aware of this danger and prepare protection in advance, without waiting for the appearance of a universal quantum computer powerful enough to solve useful tasks as well as to crack cryptography.
Quantum Key Distribution (Qkd) As a Way of Protection Against Quantum Computer Attacks
A real market is forming around new ways of data transfer that can withstand quantum attacks. First, it is quantum communications - Quantum Key Distribution (QKD).
This technology uses the quantum properties of elementary particles - photons - to protect the transmission of information at the level of the fundamental laws of physics.
The global Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) market size is projected to reach US$ 5269.55 million by 2028, from US$ 1411.96 million in 2021, at a CAGR of 19.56% during 2022-2028.
Quantum communications (QC) is a field that develops technologies or methods for transmitting information encoded into quantum states.
One of the directions of quantum communications is quantum key distribution, which provides guarantees at the level of the physics laws regarding the protection of transmitted information.
Therefore, many government agencies and big businesses are ahead of the curve. They investigate threats, implement quantum-secure cryptographic solutions, and plan to make money on this.
For example, Toshiba announced a partnership with telecommunications companies Verizon Communication Inc in the United States and BT Group in the UK. The corporation plans to earn $3 billion from solutions to protect against quantum threats by 2030.
Interest in quantum communications on different levels is emphasized by high-profile pilot projects in the telecommunications and banking industries. In parallel, the process of standardizing the technology within NIST (U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology).
Protection for Mobile Internet
Users may not even notice how many transactions a day they make. Electronic payments, logins to personal accounts, registrations on social networks, communication in messengers: personal data is extremely vulnerable at the moment of transmission.
Therefore, an important event was that telecommunications giant SK Telecom announced a chipset with a quantum random number generator (QRNG) from manufacturer ID Quantique.
The technology is built into the Samsung Galaxy A Quantum 5G smartphone.
Thus, the manufacturers intend to increase the security of users' personal data on the Internet of the future. For example, to secure login to accounts, do operations with an electronic wallet, and make mobile payments.
The ambitious pilot project was announced as the first experience of commercialization of quantum technologies for cell phones.
Korean bank DGB Daegu was interested in the Samsung Galaxy A Quantum 5G smartphone. Customers' transactions through the banking application on the Samsung Galaxy A Quantum 5G smartphone will be protected by encryption based on truly unpredictable random numbers.
This reaction is legitimate. McAfee and CSIS estimate that hacking attacks will damage the global economy by more than $1 trillion in 2020.
Quantum Protection for Fiber Optic Communication Lines
Another vector of quantum attacks could be trunk lines because they transmit strategically important data. Copying and breaking this data can lead to losses of billions of dollars.
IT services face the complex and important task of integrating cryptographic solutions into highly loaded channels resistant to prospective attacks, including quantum computers.
These solutions require:
- Integration of high-speed hardware symmetric key ciphers
- Quantum key distribution that provides these encryptors with secret keys
The transmission of single photons requires a dedicated fiber optic strand. Since networks are often congested, scientists are working to ensure that quantum and classical signals can coexist on the same fiber at different wavelengths.
Corporations-giants in the communications industry worldwide support the trend of quantum security in telecommunications. German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom (DT) has provided its facilities to study the limitations of quantum key distribution technology.
The testbed included DT's 100-kilometer fiber-optic network. The Berlin pilot project is part of a larger project of the OPENQKD consortium, which is being implemented in parallel in several European countries.
The project's main goal was to prepare for the emergence of quantum computers capable of breaking cryptographic ciphers in a day rather than the millions of years that classical computers need for similar tasks.
Information security solutions based on quantum-resistant encryption algorithms (post-quantum cryptography) are being developed in conjunction with quantum communications.
Post-quantum cryptography is a new generation of cryptographic algorithms that prove resistant to attacks using traditional computing architectures and quantum computers.
Compared to traditional algorithms, post-quantum algorithms use different mathematical principles. Quantum and post-quantum cryptography complement each other as hardware and software solutions in classical cryptography.
If we look at how this is applied in practice, we see that quantum cryptography is suitable for protecting highly loaded communication channels and channels that carry strategically valuable information.
For example, between bank offices, data centers, or top management videoconferences. At the same time, post-quantum cryptography can solve the problem of securing unencumbered channels.
For example, South Korean mobile operator LGU+ has integrated post-quantum technology into its network equipment. The company notes that the solution is relevant for wired communications, wireless networks, and 5G.
IBM representatives also announced the development of several quantum-safe projects.
Connecting to Space
Terrestrial and underground telecommunications systems have coverage limitations. It is impossible to lay such networks in many places on our planet. Therefore, another challenge of the quantum era is learning to transmit a signal quantum via satellite.
In the summer of 2020, a record was set for the transmission range of an encrypted message without intermediate receiving/transmitting points. Scientists in China used entangled photons from a quantum communication satellite.
The two observatories in China that sent and received the messages were 1,200 kilometers apart. The signal transmission had a very low error rate.
This has important implications for a secure internet. If intruders intercept the signal, the receiving point on Earth will detect a sharp jump in the error rate of the transmitted key. And it will not be used to decode the information. Therefore, the basic error level should be as low as possible.
Advances in this area will help to increase the coverage area of quantum-secure data transmission.
How to Protect Against Quantum Attacks in 2023
All of these vectors may seem terribly far-fetched, but looking at 2022, the industry is waiting for the first public case of a quantum computer hack. After that, the cybersecurity landscape will seriously change.
The availability of hacking capabilities will likely not be immediately known to the general public. Going into the quantum era should be done in calm and consistent steps.
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Check your information security department's knowledge of new technologies and data protection methods. If knowledge is not enough, participate in open educational events on quantum technologies, which leading technological universities regularly hold in the country.
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Analyze the value of data in your organization. Quantum cryptography will primarily be needed for those companies that transmit or process critical information and personal user data with long retention periods. For example, in the telecommunications, banking, and IT industries. This kind of analysis is already available in the industry, not just in scientific laboratories.
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Develop a new information security strategy and determine the amount of investment needed. Based on this, select and research solutions to help your business transition to a quantum-secure architecture. This step requires an individual approach for each company based on the current level of staff training and technical equipment.
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Develop new technological competencies within your company, hire specialists who understand quantum communications, or train core employees in advance. Quantum communications is a new industry in the context of technology commercialization. Until recently, it was closed in laboratories, but today the market is already forming an ongoing demand for specialists in this field. For example, JPMorgan is implementing an overall quantum computing and communications strategy. The company publishes job openings showing interest in developing quantum algorithms applied to artificial intelligence, optimization, and cryptography.
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As with any other potential threat, do not wait for the "last moment". Instead, plan a transition to quantum-secure solutions in cycles of information infrastructure upgrades with the cooperation of experts in the field of quantum communications integration.
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