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Apple says there's a real risk that future quantum computers could be able to decrypt and read content sent via its iMessage app, so it developed a new protocol to combat the potential threat.

To create the new iMessage protocol, which is called PQ3, Apple says it rebuilt its cryptographic protocol "from the ground up" to redesign iMessage from a security standpoint. PQ stands for post-quantum, and Apple says PQ3 brings a third level of protection to its end users. It's also able to conceal the size of messages, the company says.

Content on iMessage is currently end-to-end encrypted, meaning messages from both the sender and receiver are encrypted so that not even Apple can view your messages.

"The rise of quantum computing threatens to change the equation," Apple's Security Engineering and Architecture (SEAR) team wrote Wednesday.

While some quantum computers already exist and are in use, the Technical University of Denmark said last year that such machines aren't that powerful yet. Researchers estimate that quantum computers may not be able to crack end-to-end encryption for years to come, mainly because current quantum computers simply aren't big enough.

"Even though they cant decrypt any of this data today, they can retain it until they acquire a quantum computer that can decrypt it in the future, an attack scenario known as Harvest Now, Decrypt Later," Apple's SEAR team says.

But Apple's proactive solution aims to alleviate such concerns. Apple will roll out PQ3 on iMessage to fully replace its existing protocol sometime this year. Once Apple users install the software update that includes PQ3, their messages will be protected by it going forward.

PQ3 will launch with iOS 17.4, which is expected in March, as well as iPadOS 17.4, macOS 14.4, and watchOS 10.4, according to Apple. This means Apple plans to add its next-gen security feature to all its devices that offer iMessage, from its iPhones to tablets, computers, and wearables.

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Apple Ramps Up iMessage Security to Fight Looming Quantum Computing Threat - PCMag

The electron is the basic unit of electricity, as it carries a single negative charge. This is what were taught in high school physics, and it is overwhelmingly the case in most materials in nature.

But in very special states of matter, electrons can splinter into fractions of their whole. This phenomenon, known as fractional charge, is exceedingly rare, and if it can be corralled and controlled, the exotic electronic state could help to build resilient, fault-tolerant quantum computers.

To date, this effect, known to physicists as the fractional quantum Hall effect, has been observed a handful of times, and mostly under very high, carefully maintained magnetic fields. Only recently have scientists seen the effect in a material that did not require such powerful magnetic manipulation.

Now, MIT physicists have observed the elusive fractional charge effect, this time in a simpler material: five layers of graphene an atom-thin layer of carbon that stems from graphite and common pencil lead. They report their results today in Nature.

They found that when five sheets of graphene are stacked like steps on a staircase, the resulting structure inherently provides just the right conditions for electrons to pass through as fractions of their total charge, with no need for any external magnetic field.

The results are the first evidence of the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect (the term anomalous refers to the absence of a magnetic field) in crystalline graphene, a material that physicists did not expect to exhibit this effect.

This five-layer graphene is a material system where many good surprises happen, says study author Long Ju, assistant professor of physics at MIT. Fractional charge is just so exotic, and now we can realize this effect with a much simpler system and without a magnetic field. That in itself is important for fundamental physics. And it could enable the possibility for a type of quantum computing that is more robust against perturbation.

Jus MIT co-authors are lead author Zhengguang Lu, Tonghang Han, Yuxuan Yao, Aidan Reddy, Jixiang Yang, Junseok Seo, and Liang Fu, along with Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi at the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan.

A bizarre state

The fractional quantum Hall effectis an example of the weird phenomena that can arise when particles shift from behaving as individual units to acting together as a whole. This collective correlated behavior emerges in special states, for instance when electrons are slowed from their normally frenetic pace to a crawl that enables the particles to sense each other and interact. These interactions can produce rare electronic states, such as the seemingly unorthodox splitting of an electrons charge.

In 1982, scientists discovered the fractional quantum Hall effect in heterostructures of gallium arsenide, where a gas of electrons confined in a two-dimensional plane is placed under high magnetic fields. The discovery later won the group a Nobel Prize in Physics.

[The discovery] was a very big deal, because these unit charges interacting in a way to give something like fractional charge was very, very bizarre, Ju says. At the time, there were no theory predictions, and the experiments surprised everyone.

Those researchers achieved their groundbreaking results using magnetic fields to slow down the materials electrons enough for them to interact. The fields they worked with were about 10 times stronger than what typically powers an MRI machine.

In August 2023, scientists at the University of Washington reported the first evidence of fractional charge without a magnetic field. They observed this anomalous version of the effect, in a twisted semiconductor called molybdenum ditelluride. The group prepared the material in a specific configuration, which theorists predicted would give the material an inherent magnetic field, enough to encourage electrons to fractionalize without any external magnetic control.

The no magnets result opened a promising route to topological quantum computing a more secure form of quantum computing, in which the added ingredient of topology (a property that remains unchanged in the face of weak deformation or disturbance) gives a qubit added protection when carrying out a computation. This computation scheme is based on a combination of fractional quantum Hall effect and a superconductor. It used to be almost impossible to realize: One needs a strong magnetic field to get fractional charge, while the same magnetic field will usually kill the superconductor. In this case the fractional charges would serve as a qubit (the basic unit of a quantum computer).

Making steps

That same month, Ju and his team happened to also observe signs of anomalous fractional charge in graphene a material for which there had been no predictions for exhibiting such an effect.

Jus group has been exploring electronic behavior in graphene, which by itself has exhibited exceptional properties. Most recently, Jus group has looked into pentalayer graphene a structure of five graphene sheets, each stacked slightly off from the other, like steps on a staircase. Such pentalayer graphene structure is embedded in graphite and can be obtained by exfoliation using Scotch tape. When placed in a refrigerator at ultracold temperatures, the structures electrons slow to a crawl and interact in ways they normally wouldnt when whizzing around at higher temperatures.

In their new work, the researchers did some calculations and found that electrons might interact with each other even more strongly if the pentalayer structure were aligned with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) a material that has a similar atomic structure to that of graphene, but with slightly different dimensions. In combination, the two materials should produce a moir superlattice an intricate, scaffold-like atomic structure that could slow electrons down in ways that mimic a magnetic field.

We did these calculations, then thought, lets go for it, says Ju, who happened to install a new dilution refrigerator in his MIT lab last summer, which the team planned to use to cool materials down to ultralow temperatures, to study exotic electronic behavior.

The researchers fabricated two samples of the hybrid graphene structure by first exfoliating graphene layers from a block of graphite, then usingoptical tools to identify five-layered flakes in the steplike configuration. They then stamped the graphene flake onto an hBN flake and placed a second hBN flake over the graphene structure. Finally, they attached electrodes to the structure and placed it in the refrigerator, set to near absolute zero.

As they applied a current to the material and measured the voltage output, they started to see signatures of fractional charge, where the voltage equals the current multiplied by a fractional number and some fundamental physics constants.

The day we saw it, we didnt recognize it at first, says first author Lu. Then we started to shout as we realized, this was really big. It was a completely surprising moment.

This was probably the first serious samples we put in the new fridge, adds co-first author Han. Once we calmed down, we looked in detail to make sure that what we were seeing was real.

With further analysis, the team confirmed that the graphene structure indeed exhibited the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect. It is the first time the effect has been seen in graphene.

Graphene can also be a superconductor, Ju says. So, you could have two totally different effects in the same material, right next to each other. If you use graphene to talk to graphene, it avoids a lot of unwanted effects when bridging graphene with other materials.

For now, the group is continuing to explore multilayer graphene for other rare electronic states.

We are diving in to explore many fundamental physics ideas and applications, he says. We know there will be more to come.

This research is supported in part by the Sloan Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.

Excerpt from:
Electrons become fractions of themselves in graphene, study finds - MIT News

iMessage is set to receive a substantial security upgrade as Apple plans to introduce a post-quantum cryptographic protocol called PQ3.

Those are some five-dollar words, but what do they mean? In a nutshell, PQ3 is a new type of encryption tech that can locally generate encryption keys for an iMessage text on an iPhone. The text is sent to Apple servers where a fresh key is made and sent back to the device. So if a hacker somehow gets their hands on one of these messages, they cant use its key to gain access to your conversation. The locks have been changed, so to speak. Thats the gist of PQ3. A post on Apples Security Research Blog goes into way more detail. For the sake of brevity, well keep things short. But the breakdown talks about the cryptography behind everything, how rekeying works, the padding process, as well as the extensive reviews done by cybersecurity experts.

The reason Apple is doing all this is to protect its service from future threats, namely sophisticated quantum [computing] attacks. Such attacks arent exactly widespread in 2024 as computers capable of bypassing modern high-end cryptography techniques dont exist yet. Security experts have sounded the alarm, warning companies around the world of an event known as "Q-Day". This is where a quantum computer powerful enough to crack through the internet's encryption systems and security is built. And Apple has decided to listen.

The average hacker probably wont have access to this type of technology, but it may be found in the hands of a foreign adversary. Apple is particularly worried about an attack scenario called Harvest Now, Decrypt Later (also known as Store Now, Decrypt Later) which sees hackers collect as much encrypted data as possible, then sit on this treasure trove of information until the day comes where quantum computers are strong enough to break through the protection.

Support for PQ3 is scheduled to launch with the public releases of iOS 17.4, iPadOS 17.4, macOS 14.4, and watchOS 10.4. Apple is covering all of its bases here. The company claims the boosted protection is available right now on the current developer and beta builds, however, that may not be the case. We havent seen people talking about receiving PQ3 on social media or reports from other publications detailing their experiences apart from a brief mention by MacRumors. Its possible the patch could roll out to more people soon.

When PQ3 does officially launch, it could give iMessage a huge edge over other messaging platforms. Apple, in its blog post, boasts its service has Level 3 security because it has PQC (Post-Quantum Cryptography) protection. To put that into perspective, WhatsApp is Level 1 as it has end-to-end encryption but is vulnerable to quantum computing attacks. Signal is Level 2 because it has PQC although it lacks the key refresh mentioned earlier. There are plans to further improve PQ3 by implementing something called PQC authentication.

We reached out to Apple asking what this means and when people can expect the release of PQ3. This story will be updated at a later time.

In the meantime, check out TechRadar's roundup of the best iPhone for 2024.

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Apple future-proofing iMessage to protect against the scary future of quantum computing hacking - TechRadar

Tech giant Apple has announced a significant upgrade to its iMessage platform, introducing a new encryption protocol, PQ3, in a proactive move to fortify its messaging service against potential advancements in quantum computing technology. The unveiling of PQ3 underscores Apples strategic response to the looming threat posed by future breakthroughs in quantum computing, which could render current encryption methods vulnerable to exploitation. The new protocol represents a comprehensive overhaul of the iMessage cryptographic framework, signaling a proactive approach to preemptively safeguarding user communications.

In a blog post released on Wednesday, Apple emphasized the proactive nature of its initiative, highlighting the complete reconstruction of the iMessage cryptographic protocol from the ground up. The company asserts that PQ3 will replace the existing protocol across all supported conversations throughout the year, ensuring enhanced security for users.

While Apple affirms the robustness of its current encryption algorithms and notes no successful attacks thus far, concerns linger among government officials and scientists regarding the potential disruptive impact of quantum computers. Quantum computing, leveraging the properties of subatomic particles, could theoretically compromise existing encryption standards, prompting tech firms to take preemptive measures to mitigate future risks.

A Reuters investigation conducted last year shed light on the intensifying competition between the United States and China in preparing for the advent of quantum computing, a phenomenon colloquially referred to as Q-Day. Both nations have ramped up investments in quantum research and post-quantum cryptography standards, amid allegations of intercepting encrypted data in anticipation of future vulnerabilities.

Acknowledging the imperative for early preparation, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency underscored the importance of preemptive measures in safeguarding data against potential threats that may emerge with the proliferation of quantum computing technology.

Apples deployment of PQ3 incorporates a novel array of technical safeguards aimed at mitigating the potential vulnerabilities posed by quantum computing advancements, reinforcing the companys commitment to data security and privacy.

Michael Biercuk, founder and CEO of Q-CTRL, a quantum technology company, lauded Apples proactive stance, characterizing it as a vote of confidence in acknowledging the transformative potential of advanced computing technologies and the imperative to fortify existing security measures against future threats.

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Apple Bolsters iMessage Encryption Amid Quantum Computing Threats - Telecom Lead

A new phase of matter previously recognized only in theory has been created by researchers using a quantum processor, which demonstrates the control of an exotic form of particles called non-Abelian anyons.

Neither fermions nor bosons, these exotic anyons fall someplace in between and are believed only to be able to exist in two-dimensional systems. Controlling them allowed the creation of an entirely new phase of matter the researchers now call non-Abelian topological order.

In our everyday world of three dimensions, just two types of particles exist: bosons and fermions. Bosons include light, as well as the subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson, whereas fermions comprise protons, neutrons, and electrons that constitute the matter throughout our universe.

Non-Abelian anyons are identified as quasiparticles, meaning that they are particle-like manifestations of excitation that persist for periods within a specific state of matter. They are of particular interest for their ability to store memory, which may have a variety of technological applications, particularly in quantum computing.

One of the reasons for this is because of the stability non-Abelian anyons possess when compared to qubits, which are currently used in quantum computing platforms. Unlike qubits, which can at times be less than reliable, non-Abelian anyons can store information as they move around one another without the influence of their environment, making them ideal targets for use in computational systems once they can be harnessed at larger scales.

In recent research, Ashvin Vishwanath, the George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Physics at Harvard University, used a quantum processor to test how non-Abelian anyons might be leveraged to perform quantum computation.

One very promising route to stable quantum computing is to use these kinds of exotic states of matter as the effective quantum bits and to do quantum computation with them, said Nat Tantivasadakarn, a former Harvard student now at Caltech, who participated in the research.

To achieve this unique and exotic state of matter, the team devised an experiment that, in principle, was simple: they decided to push the capabilities of Quantinuums newest H2 processor to its limits.

Beginning with 27 trapped ions, the team employed a series of partial measurements designed to follow a sequence in which their complexity increased within the quantum system, which would result in a quantum wave function possessing the characteristics of the particular particles they hoped to generate.

Vishwanath likened their efforts to sculpting a specific state through the process of measurement, a component of the research process that has led physicists in the past to greatand at times perplexingdiscoveries.

Measurement is the most mysterious aspect of quantum mechanics, Vishwanath said, leading to famous paradoxes like Schrdingers cat and numerous philosophical debates.

Employing an adaptive circuit on Quantinuums H2 trapped-ion quantum processor, Vishwanath and his team were successfully able to drive the processor to its limits, allowing them to create and move anyons along what are known as Borromean rings, used in mathematics to describe a trio of closed curves in three-dimensional space that are linked topologically, and are unable to be separated.

Under such conditions, non-Abelian anyons tunneled around a torus created all 22 ground states, as well as an excited state with a single anyona peculiar feature of non-Abelian topological order, the team writes in a newly published study.

This work illustrates the counterintuitive nature of non-Abelions and enables their study in quantum devices, they conclude.

At least for me, it was just amazing that it all works, and that we can do something very concrete, Vishwanath recently told the Harvard Gazette.

It really connects many different aspects of physics over the years, from foundational quantum mechanics to more recent ideas of these new kinds of particles.

Vishwanath, Tantivasadakarn, and their colleague Ruben Verresen were all co-authors on the teams new paper, Non-Abelian topological order and anyons on a trapped-ion processor, which appeared in the journal Nature on February 14, 2024.

Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email atmicah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work atmicahhanks.comand on X:@MicahHanks.

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New Phase of Matter Created During Experiments with Exotic Particles in Quantum Processor - The Debrief