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While IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) is an exciting company in a next-generation industry, I think the company will struggle to keep up with the rapid pace of technological change. The company is competing with companies with more financial resources necessary to pay for the best talent. The company is losing money, and that will not change soon. Constant refinancing or dilution will be required. It's also unclear how much value IONQ has added to its customers. It is difficult to find information and even more challenging to understand the technology behind quantum computing. Much of any potential future success is already priced into its enormous valuation. In addition, the cost of talent and energy is rising, and venture capital is becoming scarcer as interest rates rise. Therefore, I do not see an attractive risk/reward ratio.

IonQ was founded in 2015 by Dr. Christopher Monroe and Dr. Jungsang Kim, who already had decades of experience researching quantum computers. They had "the goal of taking trapped ion quantum computing out of the lab and into the market".

Right now, it's the only public company whose quantum computers are available in big-tech clouds - via Microsoft's (MSFT) Azure and Amazon's (AMZN) Web Services starting in 2019, and Google's (GOOG) cloud starting in 2021. These can be booked by companies, which generates revenue for the company. The company has been listed on the stock exchange since October 2021.

The quantum computing market size is predicted to rise from $89.6 million in 2019 to $1,866.8 million by 2030 (according to the market research report published by P&S Intelligence), equaling a CAGR of 33.1%. Furthermore, on page 3 of their investor presentation, IONQ mentions a $65B TAM by 2030.

Of course, these are all estimates, and I doubt any assessment that goes further than two years into the future. However, it is almost certain that when quantum computers exceed the computing power of today's best classical supercomputers, the market will be there, and it will be huge. This assumes that the performance will also be practically usable without producing errors, which researchers have struggled with so far. There are already quantum computers that are faster than today's supercomputers, but so far, these perform calculations tailored to them and cannot be used for "everything" in general.

According to IBM, how exactly quantum computers will be useful, we do not know yet. Among the early adaptors are Financial managers and banks. Pharmaceutical companies could also become significant beneficiaries, and finally, quantum computers will help elevate machine learning and AI to levels of complexity that are unimaginable for us today. And there will undoubtedly be many other areas of application, but from today's point of view, this is only speculation.

Many technologies are used for quantum computing qubits, such as superconducting, photonics, silicon-based, spin qubits, trapped-ions, etc. IONQ's quantum technology of choice is trapped-ion qubits created from an isotope of a rare-earth metal called ytterbium but will be switched to barium in the next generation. These barium-based systems are supposed to offer several benefits, such as lower error rates, systems that are easier to network, and increased uptime for customers.

Overall, IONQ is more focused on keeping errors low, as their systems are already commercially available. It could be a potential risk for the company to commit to a specific technology too early and thus be less free to research than the competition: a side effect of the IPO. From now on, the market expects sales to rise sharply.

The current system operates with 20 algorithmic qubits and is expected to multiply within the next few years. However, it is essential to remember that while these long-term projections are a goal for companies, they are never sure to happen.

IONQ march presentation

Meanwhile, on November 15, IBM (IBM) introduced a chip with more than 100 qubits. The 'Eagle' chip is a step towards IBM's goal of creating a 433-qubit quantum processor next year, followed by one with 1,121 qubits, named Condor, by 2023. Already in 2019, Google announced a 54 qubit processor with the goal to build a "useful quantum computer" by 2029.

Other competitors include Honeywell (HON) and several Chinese companies that are going their independent way in this area. As we can see, it's a crowded business where we'll see a lot of discoveries and research in the future. It's impossible to predict who will build the most superior systems for years to come. But one thing is certain: This will require massive capital and talent. Currently, IONQ has only 97 employees (according to Seeking Alpha's company profile), which sounds like almost nothing and makes me wonder how this small company can compete with multi-billion dollar companies. Sure, they have partners like the University of Maryland and South Korea's Q Center. But will this be enough? I don't know. But what I know is...

IONQ currently has a market capitalization of $2.5B with debt of $4.2M and "cash, cash equivalents, and investments" of $603M as of December 31, 2021, resulting in an enterprise value of approximately $1.9B. According to the latest press release, 2021 revenues were $2.1M ($1.6M in Q4), representing an EV/S ratio of 904. The company expects sales in 2022 to be between $10.2M and $10.7M, which would correspond to a price to sales ratio of about 180.

The 2021 net loss was $106.2 million, and the adjusted EBITDA loss was $28.3 million. For 2022, adjusted EBITDA loss is expected to be approximately $55 million. So the cash burn rate continues to accelerate, but at least the cash reserves are sufficient for a few more years. Nevertheless, there is no indication if and when the company will ever be cash flow positive. In the current monetary and geopolitical environment, energy is becoming more expensive, and salaries are higher, especially for the highly educated talent that IONQ needs. They are permanently competing with rivals who can comfortably pay any compensation.

One thing I always check when stock prices appear high is whether there has been insider selling. I interpret that as a sign that those sellers think their price is overvalued. So there's not much to see here, especially since the stock price was double in December. Nevertheless, I mention it anyway because it is always valuable to check insider selling.

openinsider

I could not find out the price for bookings of the quantum computers. Then I realized that there is very little information:

Or in other words: I find it extremely difficult to assess whether this is a sticky business with high added value for IONQ's customers or not. Without knowing that, how should private investors like us evaluate our investments? The technical descriptions and developments are hard to understand for private investors. For example, how is anyone supposed to understand whether barium-based systems will be better than those made of ytterbium? So you always have to rely on the information provided by the company. At the same time, we don't know what the competition is currently researching and how far they are already behind closed doors. It will be the same as in every area of the economy: whoever offers the best product at the best price will prevail.

So there is a lot of uncertainty. Nevertheless, the valuation is so high that years of strong growth are already priced in. It is not an appealing risk-reward ratio. There is a lot of downside potential at this valuation, and I can hardly think of a trigger that would send this enormously high valuation even higher now.

But of course, there are also many positive things about the company. They have proven their concept and already have quantum computing systems in the clouds and successfully monetize them. This could well indicate that the company is technically further ahead than the competition, especially regarding a lower error rate, which research struggles with a lot.

Furthermore, the management team consists of high-caliber and highly educated people. Some have been researching the subject for decades and have previously done fundamental quantum research at universities. Furthermore, there is now a joint R&D with Hyundai to create the next generation EV batteries. The company also has high-profile investors (Amazon, Google) and customers (Goldman Sachs, Accenture).

The company may be a takeover candidate. While they are not generating much revenue, the intellectual property could be precious. Moreover, their system is already running on the clouds of Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. Therefore, it would not be far-fetched if one of these three companies were interested in a takeover. IONQ's technology and employees would most likely complement their research. At the moment, of course, this is just pure speculation, but it should be kept in mind, especially if you want to short the stock because of its valuation.

It is a tempting stock to short. However, there is also risk: The hype around the share and quantum computers may continue or intensify. Furthermore, the company could be a takeover candidate. If you want to short, be sure to place a stop order so that the risk is limited. If you don't want to do that, I think this company is an excellent candidate to wait and see. It is likely that at some point, the company will not reach its quarterly targets, and on that day, the share price will fall sharply. There will be a better time for an entry if you ever want to enter.

For all these reasons, an investment is out of the question for me. So far, there is only meager revenue, a lot of research to do, a high valuation, and a business model that I can't assess. Moreover, a competitor could make a breakthrough any day, causing the company to fall behind technologically. Nevertheless, it is a stock I want to keep on my watchlist since it could possibly be a potential winner of one of the next megatrends.

See the original post here:
IonQ: Enormous Valuation And The Competition Is Big-Tech - Seeking Alpha

Never dismiss the power of money to persuade. A study initiated before the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has found that a $1000 incentive for the vaccine-hesitant could boost vaccine rates up to 87 percent.

At the time, that number was considered sufficient to confer herd immunity. With COVID-19 variants now proliferating globally, notions of herd immunity have changed. But the authors say their findings are still valuable, given that much of the developing world has yet to become fully vaccinated, and as public health officials continue to encourage vaccination as a powerful tool against serious health effects.

Its even a bigger question than vaccines and COVID. This is part of a larger set of ?dilemmas called collective action problems such as how do we convince people to take action to mitigate climate change, says Vivek Nandur, a doctoral student in behavioural economics at the University of Torontos Rotman School of Management and one of three study co-authors. This speaks to that and how monetary incentives can be used to influence larger behaviour change.

Some 2,500 study participants, recruited online in December 2020, were asked if they planned to get the vaccine or, if they would accept it under one of three conditions if it were free, if it was effective against COVID-19, or if it had no side effects.,

Those who answered yes varied from 68 percent in the free vaccine category to 75 percent for those in the no side effects group. Some 70 percent of participants in the no conditions group said they would get vaccinated.

All participants who answered no, were then asked how much money would incentivize them to accept the vaccine. A $500 cash incentive brought the percentage of vaccine willing up to 80 percent. But the $1000 cash incentive, the maximum, raised that figure to nearly 87 percent.

Between 13 and 15 percent of participants were unwilling to accept the vaccine under any circumstances. But Nandur said the results support other findings that show that the vaccine hesitant are not a homogeneous group and that public health strategies need to be similarly nuanced and targeted. Even cash incentives are not a panacea, and can potentially backfire, given other conditions.

As one example, offering the vaccine for free in our experiment seems to make people a bit warier, which is confusing and likely needs more examination, Nandur said.

Money aside, people were more willing to take the vaccine if it was shown as effective against COVID-19, or had no side effects. Hesitancy was stronger among younger people than older ones, and among political conservatives.

The study was published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.

Nandur co-authored the study with David Soberman, a professor of marketing and the Canadian National Chair of Strategic Marketing at the Rotman School, and Ganesh Iyer of the Haas School of Business at the University of Berkley.

The researchers have since looked at the effects of a 2021 policy by the government of West Virginia to offer $100 savings bonds to people aged 16 to 35 who get vaccinated. The policy was introduced to boost the states lagging vaccination rate from 52 to beyond 70 percent.

More here:
Pay the vaccine-hesitant to get their COVID-19 shots ScienceDaily - Verve Times

Total contract bookings of $16.7M (5% beat) for the Full Year 2021

Total contract bookings of $1.5M (115% beat) in the Fourth Quarter 2021

Increases total contract bookings guidance midpoint 47% from $15M to $22M for 2022

Revenue of $2.1M (31% beat) for the Full Year 2021

Revenue of $1.6M (50% beat) in the Fourth Quarter 2021

Expects 2022 revenue to be 5x 2021s topline

COLLEGE PARK, Md., March 28, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), a leader in quantum computing, today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2021 and provided a business update.

"IonQs 2021 was outstanding. We more than tripled our initial bookings target, announced what we believe to be the worlds most powerful quantum computer, and became the worlds first public quantum computing company," said Peter Chapman, President and CEO of IonQ. "Our fourth quarter results are testament to our success in both technology development and rapid commercialization."

2021 Financial Highlights

After tripling the Companys original 2021 contract bookings forecast in September from $5 million to $15 million, IonQ beat that number again to end up at $16.7 million for the full year.

IonQ achieved revenue of $2.1 million for the full year, which was 31% above the $1.6 million IonQ forecasted on the Companys Q3 call.

Cash, cash equivalents and investments were $603 million as of December 31, 2021.

Net loss was $106.2 million and adjusted EBITDA loss was $28.3 million for 2021.*

* Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure defined under "Non-GAAP Financial Measures," and is reconciled to net loss, its closest comparable GAAP measure, at the end of this release.

2022 Financial Outlook

IonQ expects revenue for 2022 to be 5x IonQs 2021 topline. For the full year 2022, IonQ expects revenue to be between $10.2 million and $10.7 million, with between $1.8 million and $2.0 million for the first quarter.

IonQ anticipates full year 2022 bookings of between $20 million and $24 million, with between $3 million and $4 million for the first quarter.

IonQ believes that over the next two years, one or two system sales could push combined TCV contract bookings over nine figures for the three year period from 2021 to 2023.

IonQ anticipates an adjusted EBITDA loss of $55 million for the full year 2022 at the midpoint of the revenue outlook provided above.**

Story continues

**The Company cannot provide a reconciliation between its forecasted Adjusted EBITDA and net loss without unreasonable effort due to the unavailability of estimates for stock-based compensation and change in fair value of assumed warrant liabilities as these items are not within the Companys control, may vary greatly between periods and could significantly impact future financial results.

Commercial Highlights

In January, the Company announced a major commercial deal with Hyundai Motor Company to develop quantum algorithms that may improve the charging, discharging, durability, capacity, and safety of electric vehicle batteries.

IonQ is collaborating with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to research metal hydrides, which can benefit development of technologies including batteries and hydrogen storage for hydrogen powered vehicles.

In 2021, IonQ collaborated with leading organizations such as Accenture, Goldman Sachs, and GE Research.

In 2021, IonQ partnered with The University of Maryland to create the National Quantum Lab at Maryland (Q-Lab), the nations first user facility to enable hands-on access to a commercial-grade quantum computer.

Technical Highlights

In February, IonQ announced that the latest-generation IonQ Aria system achieved a record 20 algorithmic qubits, representing a massive leap forward not just for IonQ, but for the entire quantum computing industry.

In March, Microsoft announced official plans to bring IonQ Aria to the Azure Quantum Cloud, democratizing access to the worlds most powerful quantum computer. IonQ became the only company to make its quantum computers available via all three major cloud providers (Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, AWS) in 2021.

In December, IonQ announced plans to build quantum computers with barium qubits, which the Company expects will contribute to higher gate fidelity, faster gates, lower error rates, and lower system costs.

IonQs new barium qubits are already delivering on their promise of more accurate quantum computing with recent results showing a 13-fold reduction in state preparation and measurement errors.

The Company has secured a sustainable, perpetual source of barium qubits through a partnership with the U.S. Department of Energys Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

Earlier this year, IonQ announced the invention of a new family of quantum gates in collaboration with the Duke Quantum Center (DQC) at Duke University. IonQ believes these new gates will eventually lead to more efficient quantum algorithms requiring many fewer qubits. Importantly, the gates can only be run using the unique architecture employed by IonQ and DQC systems.

Last year, IonQ became the first team in the world to demonstrate fault-tolerant error correction in practice, as documented in a peer-reviewed Nature paper in collaboration with Duke University, the University of Maryland and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Team Highlights

IonQ hired world-class talent, with key positions filled by Thomas Kramer as Chief Financial Officer (Opower, Cvent), Tom Jones as Chief People Officer (Blue Origin, Microsoft, Honeywell), Laurie Babinski as General Counsel and Secretary (Intuits Credit Karma), Ariel Braunstein as Senior Vice President of Product Management (Google, Lytro, Cisco), Dean Kassmann as Vice President of Research and Development (Blue Origin, Amazon), Jordan Shapiro as Vice President of Financial Planning & Analysis (NEA, Samsung), Kevin Caimi as Controller (Opower, Ernst & Young), Anant Sanchetee as Senior Director of Marketing (Meta, Dreem), and Mark Solomon as Director of Quantum Sales (IBM).

IonQ appointed Inder Singh, CFO of Arm, as an independent member of the Companys Board of Directors.

Fourth Quarter 2021 Conference Call

IonQ will host a conference call today at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time to review the Companys financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2021. The call will be accessible by telephone at 877-407-4018 (domestic) or 201-689-8471 (international) using passcode 13726155. The call will also be available live via webcast on the Companys website here, or directly here. A telephone replay of the conference call will be available at 844-512-2921 or 412-317-6671 with access code 13726155 and will be available until 11:59 PM Eastern time, April 11, 2022. An archive of the webcast will also be available shortly after the call and will remain available for 90 days.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement IonQs condensed financial statements presented in accordance with GAAP, we use non-GAAP measures of certain components of financial performance. Adjusted EBITDA is a financial measure that is not required by or presented in accordance with GAAP. Management believes that this measure provides investors an additional meaningful method to evaluate certain aspects of the companys results period over period. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net loss before interest expense, income tax expense (benefit), depreciation and amortization expense, stock-based compensation, remeasurements of liability-classified warrants, and other nonrecurring nonoperating income and expenses. We use Adjusted EBITDA to measure the operating performance of our business, excluding specifically identified items that we do not believe directly reflect our core operations and may not be indicative of our recurring operations. The presentation of non-GAAP financial measures is not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP, and the Companys non-GAAP measures may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies. For IonQs investors to be better able to compare its current results with those of previous periods, the Company has shown a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures at the end of this release.

About IonQ

IonQ, Inc. is a leader in quantum computing, with a proven track record of innovation and deployment. IonQs latest generation quantum computer, IonQ Aria, is the worlds most powerful quantum computer, and IonQ has defined what it believes is the best path forward to scale.

IonQ is the only company with its quantum systems available through the cloud on Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as through direct API access. IonQ was founded in 2015 by Christopher Monroe and Jungsang Kim based on 25 years of pioneering research. To learn more, visit http://www.ionq.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Some of the forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words. Statements that are not historical in nature, including the words "anticipate," "expect," "suggests," "plan," "believe," "intend," "estimates," "targets," "projects," "should," "could," "would," "may," "will," "forecast" and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements include those related to the Companys ability to further develop and advance its quantum computers and achieve scale; ability to attract personnel; market opportunity, anticipated growth, and future financial performance, including managements financial outlook for 2022. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not limited to: managements financial outlook for 2022; market adoption of quantum computing solutions and the Companys products, services and solutions; the ability of the Company to protect its intellectual property; changes in the competitive industries in which the Company operates; changes in laws and regulations affecting the Companys business; the Companys ability to implement its business plans, forecasts and other expectations, and identify and realize additional partnerships and opportunities; and the risk of downturns in the market and the technology industry including, but not limited to, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of IonQs Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2021 and other documents filed by the Company from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and the Company assumes no obligation and do not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. The Company does not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectation

IonQ, Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations

(unaudited)

(in thousands, except share and per share data)

Three Months Ended

Year Ended

December 31,

December 31,

2021

2020

2021

2020

Revenue

$

1,648

$

-

$

2,099

$

-

Costs and expenses:

Cost of revenue (excluding depreciation and amortization)

298

86

1,040

143

Research and development

4,917

2,514

20,228

10,157

Sales and marketing

849

223

3,233

486

General and administrative

5,416

1,707

13,737

3,547

Depreciation and amortization

1,005

405

2,548

1,400

Total operating costs and expenses

12,485

4,935

40,786

15,733

Loss from operations

Originally posted here:
IonQ Announces Full Year 2021 Financial Results and Provides Business Update - Yahoo Finance

While most messaging apps promise end-to-end encryption, they suffer from 2 fundamental flaws.

Firstly, they are usually governed by a central authority and depend on centralized servers. These servers store all the metadata of your conversations and are vulnerable to attacks. Further, the central authority also controls your data, and they can use it as they deem fit.

The second problem is that end-to-end encryption will become obsolete once we enter the age of quantum computing (more on this later).

To address these issues, a new generation of messaging apps has emerged. They are decentralized, quantum-resistant and will effectively future-proof private communication. And at the forefront of these up-and-coming messaging apps is the xx messenger.

The xx network

The xx network is a full-stack platform with a layer one blockchain that is quantum resistant. It is one of the most private communications networks in the world right now. One unique aspect of the network is that its communication layer even obfuscates the metadata of your chats. This provides an added level of security.

Any application or blockchain platform can route its traffic to the xx network for secure and quantum-proofed end-to-end communication.

The crowning jewel of the network is its decentralized messaging application, xx messenger. It embodies all the features that the xx network promises. It is an end-to-end quantum secure messaging application that obfuscates metadata.

Both the xx network and the messenger are the creation of David Chaum, a computer scientist and cryptographer known as the 'godfather of cryptocurrency'. In 1982, way before Satoshi Nakamoto published his now-famous white paper, Chaum published a dissertation titled, "Computer Systems Established, Maintained, and Trusted by Mutually Suspicious Groups,". This was the first blockchain protocol to exist.

Features of the xx messenger

xx messenger is not just a proof-of-concept utilizing state of the art quantum technology; it is a full-fledged messenger with modern features expected from any top-of-the-line messaging application. It offers popular features such as group chats, audio, and video sharing. It is also very easy to sign up on xx messenger. You do not have to link an existing account, number, or email ID.

Instead, you only have to provide a pseudonym. This makes it free from any form of real-world identification. The application only relies on its underpinning privacy-preserving technology to give users the ultimate privacy communication experience.

The quantum computing problem

We have repeatedly used the phrase quantum protected or quantum proofing, but to really appreciate this feature, we must understand what quantum computing refers to in this context.

Quantum computing applies the principle of quantum physics to the world of computers. Quantum physics relates to understanding problems and physical concepts at atomic and sub-atomic levels. The working of a computer or its smallest unit, a transistor, can also be put in terms of quantum physics.

Today's computers use the binary digits - 0 and 1 - as the most basic levelled instructions. In machine language, 1 refers to a true statement, and 0 refers to a false statement. A combination of these digits can be used to form complex instructions, and that is how all computer instructions are formed.

But due to the concept of 'Quantum superposition', it is possible for a machine to read both digits simultaneously. While quantum computers do not exist now, experts believe that it is only a matter of time before they do. These computers will be extremely powerful and would be able to crack the encryption standards we use today in minutes.

Chaum and his team at xx network have developed a quantum secure consensus algorithm known as xxBFT consensus to circumvent this problem.

The consensus model ensures that the network is protected from quantum computing attacks. The application's message mixing protocol called xx Cmix ensures that encryption cannot be broken and also provides a metadata shredding feature.

A decentralized network

On the other side of privacy is decentralization. It ensures that no organization, third-party or even the xx network itself can access a sender's or recipient's data. The xx messenger is built on top of the decentralized xx network.

The xx network uses a randomly selected pool of nodes on the network to help encrypt messages in sets of 1,000. The nodes continuously shuffle these messages and encrypt them. The nodes have an incentive to participate in the encryption they are rewarded in the blockchain's native currency for their effort in securing the network.

The xx network is also an open-source platform, meaning anyone with the technical know-how can contribute to the network and any application on it, including the xx messenger. The source code of the application is written in the Golang programming language.

The xx messenger aims to fill a gap in the market by providing a decentralized and quantum secure infrastructure that is robust and easy to use. The application is currently available on both IOS and Android Play Store for download.

Read more:
Is the XX messenger the future of private communication? - CNBCTV18

The cybersecurity industry is founded upon two types of competition: that between security vendors and cybercriminal adversaries, and that between the vendors themselves.

Whats unusual about the situation is the way in which these two battlegrounds are connected; to prevent threat actors from infecting devices with malware and infiltrating business networks, cybersecurity vendors often have to establish a temporary truce.

This balance between competition and collaboration is characterized by Jaya Baloo, CISO at antivirus company Avast, as a friendly rivalry that allows for all the largest market players to work hand-in-hand when it is important to do so.

In conversation with TechRadar Pro at MWC 2022, Baloo spoke to the unconventional relationship between vendors in the sector. She insists the cybersecurity community is focused first and foremost on shielding people against attack, and that turning a profit is a secondary consideration.

I dont really care which antivirus youre using, so long as youre using one, she told us. Were still seeing so many people attacked on so many different devices, so our biggest concern is the people who are completely unprotected.

In the coming years, there is expected to be a blending together of various emerging technologies, which will create the foundation for new digital experiences for consumers and businesses.

At MWC 2022, for example, there was plenty of talk about the interplay between 5G, AI, IoT and edge computing, a heady mixture that will enable use cases ranging from driverless cars to autonomous factories and more.

However, this level of interaction between technologies is bound to create headaches for security professionals, noted Baloo, especially if new products and services are not developed with security front-of-mind.

There is an organic and orgasmic coming together of technologies right now, she said. But this will involve an increase in complexity, and complexity is the enemy of security.

In a scenario such as this, cybersecurity companies stand the best chance of shielding customers from attack if they share intelligence on new vectors, vulnerabilities and cybercriminal groups.

Baloo highlighted the work of the Avast threat intelligence team, which publishes regular reports unpacking its discoveries. One recent report analyzed an increase in phishing attacks on Ukrainian companies in the leadup to the Russian invasion, for example, and the previous instalment covered the spike in DDoS hacktivism.

When the threat intelligence team discovers a new malware strain or route of attack, not only does Avast build protections into its own services where possible, but also offers assistance to the victims and alerts the wider community to its findings, Baloo explained.

We work with all the people youd think wed be competing against. Theres a very healthy level of dialogue across the ecosystem, she told us.

Thats why its so much fun; were collaborating with like-minded people to take down the bad guys. I love our threat intelligence work.

Asked whether there are any instances in which Avast would not share intelligence, say, if withholding information had the potential to confer a competitive advantage, Baloo gave us a disapproving shake of the head. When its information about the bad guys, we share. Its as simple as that.

Last year, the cybersecurity news cycle was dominated by the SolarWinds attack and Log4J vulnerability, both of which highlighted the dangers posed by the software supply chain, a source of risk often overlooked by businesses.

Despite the commotion that surrounded both incidents, Baloo told us she expects to see more of the same in 2022, because the necessary lessons have still not been learned.

Supply chain attacks are not going anywhere, she said. The biggest problem is that we dont fully understand our potential points of weakness.

Weve reached a certain level of maturity in terms of the technologies we use, but dont understand how they interlink to create areas of weakness.

This is an issue that affects open source software to the same extent as proprietary services, notes Baloo. The fact that code is available for anyone to pore over does not necessarily mean someone has done so with the requisite level of scrutiny, as Log4j demonstrated.

However, Baloo is optimistic that regulation requiring companies to maintain greater oversight over their software bill of materials (SBOM) could play a role in minimizing risk for their customers.

In the aftermath of the SolarWinds attack, for example, US President Biden put in place an executive order that led to new guidance that requires software vendors to provide a comprehensive SBOM as part of the government procurement process.

The US stopped short of requiring vendors to provide SBOMs to all customers, but the hope is that the practice will become more mainstream and, at the very least, that new regulation will raise the profile of supply chain-related risk.

Not only are cybersecurity companies tasked with anticipating the kinds of attacks that may threaten customers in the short-term, but they must also look further ahead and further afield.

Another developing field of technology expected to have a significant impact on the cybersecurity landscape is quantum computing, which happens to be an additional area of expertise for Baloo, who advises the World Economic Forum on the issue.

Quantum computers solve problems in an entirely different way to classical machines, exploiting a phenomenon known as superposition (whereby subatomic particles exist in multiple states at once) to perform certain calculations many times faster than is currently possible.

Although the worlds most powerful quantum processors currently offer too few quantum bits (qubits) to establish a meaningful advantage over traditional supercomputers, the maturation of quantum computing will create various problems from a security perspective.

Most significantly, large-scale quantum computers will have enough horsepower to break modern cryptography. It is a mistake, therefore, to assume that information protected by encryption today will remain secure for years to come. State-sponsored threat actors may already be collecting large quantities of encrypted data in the hope of one day being able to access it.

Quantum computing will answer fundamental needle-in-the-haystack scientific questions, noted Baloo. But were screwed as soon as we have a quantum computer capable of breaking current encryption.

To enjoy the benefits of quantum computing, we need a new set of cryptographic algorithms that will be unbreakable even with a quantum computer. As a cybersecurity community, we need to have a forward-looking defence, so were ready for these kinds of challenges.

Again, this is a problem on which security companies will have to collaborate closely in the coming years, both to develop new quantum-safe algorithms and push for regulation that ensures the most vulnerable portions of the economy are quantum ready.

In a scenario in which quantum-secure technologies do not develop apace with quantum computers, the foundations of modern cybersecurity will be compromised.

And the clock is ticking, warned Baloo.

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Friend and foe: The little-known pact at the heart of cybersecurity - TechRadar