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Experts at the CES 2021 conference stress importance of security education

The second age of quantum computing is poised to bring a wealth of new opportunities to the cybersecurity industry but in order to take full advantage of these benefits, the skills gap must be closed.

This was the takeaway of a discussion between two cybersecurity experts at the CES 2021 virtual conference last week.

Pete Totrorici, director of Joint Information Warfare at the Department of Defense (DoD) Joint Artificial Intelligence (AI) Center, joined Vikram Sharma, CEO of QuintessenceLabs, during a talk titled AI and quantum cyber disruption.

Quantum computing is in its second age, according to Sharma, meaning that the cybersecurity industry will soon start to witness the improvements in encryption, AI, and other areas that have long been promised by the technology.

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Quantum-era cybersecurity will wield the power to detect and deflect quantum-era cyber-attacks before they cause harm, a report from IBM reads.

It is the technology of our time, indeed, commented Sharma, who is based in Canberra, Australia.

QuintessenceLabs is looking at the application of advanced quantum technologies within the cybersecurity sphere, says Sharma, in particular the realm of data protection.

Governments and large organizations have also invested in the quantum space in recent years, with the US, UK, and India all providing funding for research.

The Joint AI Center was founded in 2018 and was launched to transform the Department of Defense to the adoption of artificial intelligence, said Totrorici.

A subdivision of the US Armed Forces, the center is responsible for exploring the use of AI and AI-enhanced communication for use in real-world combat situations.

Specifically, were trying to identify how we employ AI solutions that will have a mission impact, he said.

Across the department our day-to-day composes everything from development strategy, policy, product development, industry engagement, and other outreach activities, but if I need to identify something that I think is my most significant challenge today, its understanding the departments varied needs.

As with last year, CES took place virtually in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic

In order to reach these needs, Totrorici said that relationships between the center, academia, industry, and government need to be established.

There was a time when the DoD go it alone, [however] those days are long gone.

If were going to solve problems like AI employment or quantum development, [it] is going to require partnerships, he said.

Totrorici and Sharma both agreed that while the future is certainly in quantum computing, the ever-widening cyber skills gap needs to be addressed to take advantage of its potential.

Indeed, these partnerships cannot be formed if there arent enough experts in the field.

Totrorici said: Forefront in the mind of the DoD nowadays is, How do we how do we cultivate and retain talent?

I still think the United States does a great job of growing and building talent. Now the question becomes, Will we retain that talent, how do we leverage that time going forward, and where are we building it?

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The (ISC)2 2020 Workforce Study (PDF) found that the current cybersecurity industry needs to grow by 89% in order to effectively protect against cyber threats.

Of the companies surveyed, the study also revealed that 64% current have some shortage of dedicated cybersecurity staff.

Here in Australia weve recently established whats called the Sydney Quantum Academy, and that is an overarching group that sits across four leadings institutions that are doing some cutting-edge work in quantum in the country, said Sharma.

One of the aims of that academy is to produce quantum skilled folks broadly, but also looking specifically in the quantum cybersecurity area.

So certainly, some small initiatives that [have] kicked off, but I think theres a big gap there that that will need to be filled as we move forward.

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Mind the (skills) gap: Cybersecurity talent pool must expand to take advantage of quantum computing opportunities - The Daily Swig

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Jan. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --IonQ, the leader in quantum computing, today announced a three-year alliance with South Korea's Quantum Information Research Support Center, or Q Center. The Q Center is an independent organization at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) focused on the creation of a rich research ecosystem in the field of quantum information science. The partnership will make IonQ's trapped-ion quantum computers available for research and teaching across South Korea.

IonQ's systems have the potential to solve the world's most complex problems with the greatest accuracy. To date, the company's quantum computers have a proven track record of outperforming all other available quantum hardware.

Researchers and students across South Korea will be able to immediately start running jobs on IonQ's quantum computers. This partnership will enable researchers, scientists, and students to learn, develop, and deploy quantum applications on one of the world's leading quantum systems.

"I am proud to see IonQ enter this alliance with Q Center," said Peter Chapman, CEO & President of IonQ. "IonQ's hardware will serve as the backbone for quantum research. Our technology will play a critical role not only in the advancement of quantum, but also in fostering the next generation of quantum researchers and developers in South Korea."

"Our mission is to cultivate and promote the advancement of quantum information research in South Korea," said SKKU Professor of SAINT (SKKU Advanced Institute of NanoTechnology), Yonuk Chong. "We believe IonQ has the most advanced quantum technology available, and through our partnership, we will be able to make tremendous strides in the advancement of the industry."

This alliance builds on IonQ's continued success. IonQ recently released a product roadmap to deploy rack mounted quantum computers by 2023, and achieve broad quantum advantage by 2025. IonQ also recently unveiled a new $5.5 million, 23,000 square foot Quantum Data Center in Maryland's Discovery District. IonQ has raised $84 million in funding to date, announcing new investment from Lockheed Martin, Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH (RBVC) and Cambium earlier this year. Previous investors include Samsung Electronics, Mubadala Capital, GV, Amazon, and NEA. The company's two co-founders were also recently named to the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee (NQIAC).

About IonQIonQ is the leader in quantum computing. By making our quantum hardware accessible through the cloud, we're empowering millions of organizations and developers to build new applications to solve the world's most complex problems in business, and across society. IonQ's unique approach to quantum computing is to start with nature: using individual atoms as the heart of our quantum processing units. We levitate them in space with electric potentials applied to semiconductor-defined electrodes on a chip, and then use lasers to do everything from initial preparation to final readout and the quantum gate operations in between. The unique IonQ architecture of random-access processing of qubits in a fully connected and modular architecture will allow unlimited scaling. The IonQ approach requires atomic physics, precision optical and mechanical engineering, and fine-grained firmware control over a variety of components. Leveraging this approach, IonQ provides both a viable technological roadmap to scale and the flexibility necessary to explore a wide range of application spaces in the near term. IonQ was founded in 2015 by Jungsang Kim and Christopher Monroe and their systems are based on foundational research at The University of Maryland and Duke University.

About SKKUSungkyunkwan University (SKKU) is a leading research university located in Seoul, South Korea. SKKU is known around the world for the quality of its research and invests heavily in research and development. SKKU has more than 600 years of history as a leading educational institution, and is guided by the founding principles of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and self-cultivation.

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https://ionq.com

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IonQ and South Korea's Q Center Announce Three-Year Quantum Alliance - PRNewswire

This is the fourth in a multi-part series on cryptography and the Domain Name System (DNS).

One of the "key" questions cryptographers have been asking for the past decade or more is what to do about the potential future development of a large-scale quantum computer.

If theory holds, a quantum computer could break established public-key algorithms including RSA and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), building on Peter Shor's groundbreaking result from 1994.

This prospect has motivated research into new so-called "post-quantum" algorithms that are less vulnerable to quantum computing advances. These algorithms, once standardized, may well be added into the Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) thus also adding another dimension to a cryptographer's perspective on the DNS.

(Caveat: Once again, the concepts I'm discussing in this post are topics we're studying in our long-term research program as we evaluate potential future applications of technology. They do not necessarily represent Verisign's plans or position on possible new products or services.)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) started a Post-Quantum Cryptography project in 2016 to "specify one or more additional unclassified, publicly disclosed digital signature, public-key encryption, and key-establishment algorithms that are capable of protecting sensitive government information well into the foreseeable future, including after the advent of quantum computers."

Security protocols that NIST is targeting for these algorithms, according to its 2019 status report (Section 2.2.1), include: "Transport Layer Security (TLS), Secure Shell (SSH), Internet Key Exchange (IKE), Internet Protocol Security (IPsec), and Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC)."

The project is now in its third round, with seven finalists, including three digital signature algorithms, and eight alternates.

NIST's project timeline anticipates that the draft standards for the new post-quantum algorithms will be available between 2022 and 2024.

It will likely take several additional years for standards bodies such as the Internet Engineering Task (IETF) to incorporate the new algorithms into security protocols. Broad deployments of the upgraded protocols will likely take several years more.

Post-quantum algorithms can therefore be considered a long-term issue, not a near-term one. However, as with other long-term research, it's appropriate to draw attention to factors that need to be taken into account well ahead of time.

The three candidate digital signature algorithms in NIST's third round have one common characteristic: all of them have a key size or signature size (or both) that is much larger than for current algorithms.

Key and signature sizes are important operational considerations for DNSSEC because most of the DNS traffic exchanged with authoritative data servers is sent and received via the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which has a limited response size.

Response size concerns were evident during the expansion of the root zone signing key (ZSK) from 1024-bit to 2048-bit RSA in 2016, and in the rollover of the root key signing key (KSK) in 2018. In the latter case, although the signature and key sizes didn't change, total response size was still an issue because responses during the rollover sometimes carried as many as four keys rather than the usual two.

Thanks to careful design and implementation, response sizes during these transitions generally stayed within typical UDP limits. Equally important, response sizes also appeared to have stayed within the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) of most networks involved, thereby also avoiding the risk of packet fragmentation. (You can check how well your network handles various DNSSEC response sizes with this tool developed by Verisign Labs.)

The larger sizes associated with certain post-quantum algorithms do not appear to be a significant issue either for TLS, according to one benchmarking study, or for public-key infrastructures, according to another report. However, a recently published study of post-quantum algorithms and DNSSEC observes that "DNSSEC is particularly challenging to transition" to the new algorithms.

Verisign Labs offers the following observations about DNSSEC-related queries that may help researchers to model DNSSEC impact:

A typical resolver that implements both DNSSEC validation and qname minimization will send a combination of queries to Verisign's root and top-level domain (TLD) servers.

Because the resolver is a validating resolver, these queries will all have the "DNSSEC OK" bit set, indicating that the resolver wants the DNSSEC signatures on the records.

The content of typical responses by Verisign's root and TLD servers to these queries are given in Table 1 below. (In the table, . are the final two labels of a domain name of interest, including the TLD and the second-level domain (SLD); record types involved include A, Name Server (NS), and DNSKEY.)

For an A or NS query, the typical response, when the domain of interest exists, includes a referral to another name server. If the domain supports DNSSEC, the response also includes a set of Delegation Signer (DS) records providing the hashes of each of the referred zone's KSKs the next link in the DNSSEC trust chain. When the domain of interest doesn't exist, the response includes one or more Next Secure (NSEC) or Next Secure 3 (NSEC3) records.

Researchers can estimate the effect of post-quantum algorithms on response size by replacing the sizes of the various RSA keys and signatures with those for their post-quantum counterparts. As discussed above, it is important to keep in mind that the number of keys returned may be larger during key rollovers.

Most of the queries from qname-minimizing, validating resolvers to the root and TLD name servers will be for A or NS records (the choice depends on the implementation of qname minimization, and has recently trended toward A). The signature size for a post-quantum algorithm, which affects all DNSSEC-related responses, will therefore generally have a much larger impact on average response size than will the key size, which affects only the DNSKEY responses.

Post-quantum algorithms are among the newest developments in cryptography. They add another dimension to a cryptographer's perspective on the DNS because of the possibility that these algorithms, or other variants, may be added to DNSSEC in the long term.

In my next post, I'll make the case for why the oldest post-quantum algorithm, hash-based signatures, could be a particularly good match for DNSSEC. I'll also share the results of some research at Verisign Labs into how the large signature sizes of hash-based signatures could potentially be overcome.

Read the previous posts in this six-part blog series:

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Securing the DNS in a Post-Quantum World: New DNSSEC Algorithms on the Horizon - CircleID

An IBM patent shows a hexagonal array of qubits in a quantum computer, arranged to minimize problems controlling the finicky data processing elements.

IBM secured 9,130 US patents in 2020, more than any other company as measured by an annual ranking, and this year quantum computing showed up as part of Big Blue's research effort. The company wouldn't disclose how many of the patents were related to quantum computing -- certainly fewer than the 2,300 it received for artificial intelligence work and 3,000 for cloud computing -- but it's clear the company sees them as key to the future of computing.

The IFI Claims patent monitoring service compiles the list annually, and IBM is a fixture at the top. The IBM Research division, with labs around the globe, has for decades invested in projects that are far away from commercialization. Even though the work doesn't always pay dividends, it's produced Nobel prizes and led to entire industries like hard drives, computer memory and database software.

Get the latest tech stories with CNET Daily News every weekday.

"A lot of the work we do in R&D really is not just about the number of patents, but a way of thinking," Jerry Chow, director of quantum hardware system development, said in an exclusive interview. "New ideas come out of it."

IFI's US patent list is dominated by computer technology companies. Second place went to Samsung with 6,415 patents, followed by Canon with 3,225, Microsoft with 2,905 and Intel with 2,867. Next on the list are Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., LG, Apple, Huawei and Qualcomm. The first non-computing company is Toyota, in 14th place.

Internationally, IBM ranked second to Samsung in patents for 2020, and industrial companies Bosch and General Electric cracked the top 10. Many patents are duplicative internationally since it's possible to file for a single patent in 153 countries.

Quantum computing holds the potential to tackle computing problems out of reach of conventional computers. During a time when it's getting harder to improve ordinary microprocessors, quantum computers could pioneer new high-tech materials for solar panels and batteries, improve chemical processes, speed up package delivery, make factories more efficient and lower financial risks for investors.

Industrywide, quantum computing is a top research priority, with dozens of companies investing millions of dollars even though most don't expect a payoff for years. The US government is bolstering that effort with a massive multilab research effort. It's even become a headline event at this year's CES, a conference that more typically focuses on new TVs, laptops and other consumer products.

"Tactical and strategic funding is critical" to quantum computing's success, said Hyperion Research analyst Bob Sorensen. That's because, unlike more mature technologies, there's not yet any virtuous cycle where profits from today's quantum computing products and services fund the development of tomorrow's more capable successors.

IBM has taken a strong early position in quantum computing, but it's too early to pick winners in the market, Sorensen added.

The long-term goal is what's called a fault tolerant quantum computer, one that uses error correction to keep calculations humming even when individual qubits, the data processing element at the heart of quantum computers, are perturbed. In the nearer term, some customers like financial services giant JPMorgan Chase, carmaker Daimler and aerospace company Airbus are investing in quantum computing work today with the hope that it'll pay off later.

Quantum computing is complicated to say the least, but a few patents illustrate what's going on in IBM's labs.

Patent No. 10,622,536 governs different lattices in which IBM lays out its qubits. Today's 27-qubit "Falcon" quantum computers use this approach, as do the newer 65-qubit "Hummingbird" machines and the much more powerful 1,121-qubit "Condor" systems due in 2023.

A close-up view of an IBM quantum computer. The processor is in the silver-colored cylinder.

IBM's lattices are designed to minimize "crosstalk," in which a control signal for one qubit ends up influencing others, too. That's key to IBM's ability to manufacture working quantum processors and will become more important as qubit counts increase, letting quantum computers tackle harder problems and incorporate error correction, Chow said.

Patent No. 10,810,665 governs a higher-level quantum computing application for assessing risk -- a key part of financial services companies figuring out how to invest money. The more complex the options being judged, the slower the computation, but the IBM approach still outpaces classical computers.

Patent No. 10,599,989 describes a way of speeding up some molecular simulations, a key potential promise of quantum computers, by finding symmetries in molecules that can reduce computational complexity.

Most customers will tap into the new technology throughquantum computing as a service. Because quantum computers typically must be supercooled to within a hair's breadth of absolute zero to avoid perturbing the qubits, and require spools of complicated wiring, most quantum computing customers are likely to tap into online services from companies like IBM, Google, Amazon and Microsoft that offer access to their own carefully managed machines.

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Quantum computing research helps IBM win top spot in patent race - CNET

Finlands VTT Technical Research Centre has formed a strategic collaboration with tech startup IQM Group to build the countrys first quantum computer.

The VTT-IQM co-innovation partnership aims to deliver a 50-qubit machine by 2024, drawing on international quantum technology expertise to augment Finlands home-grown quantum capabilities.

The partnership combines VTTs expertise in supercomputing and networking systems with IQMs capacity to deliver a hardware stack for a quantum computer while working with VTT to integrate critical technologies.

The financing element of the project saw IQM launch a new series A funding round in November. The Helsinki-headquartered company raised 39m in new capital in the funding round, bringing to 71m the total amount raised by IQM for quantum computing-related research and development (R&D) project activities to date.

State-owned VTT is providing financing for the project in the form of grants totalling 20.7m from the Finnish government.

Micronova, a national research and development infrastructure resource operated jointly by VTT and Aalto University, will provide the clean room environment to build the quantum computer and associated components at a dedicated facility at Espoo, southwest of Helsinki. The build will use Micronovas specialised input and micro- and nanotechnology expertise to guide the project.

The project marks the latest phase in cooperation between VTT and Aalto University. The two partners are also involved in a joint venture to develop a new detector for measuring energy quana. As measuring the energy of qubits lies at the core of how quantum computers operate, the detector project has the potential to become a game-changer in quantum technology.

IQMs collaborative role with VTT emerged following an international public tender process. All partners expect to see robust advances in the quantum computing project in 2021, said Jan Goetz, CEO of IQM.

This project is extremely prestigious for us, said Goetz. We will be collaborating with leading experts from VTT, so this brings a great opportunity to work together in ways that help build the future of quantum technologies.

Finlands plan to build a 50-qubit machine stacks up reasonably well in terms of ambition and scope, compared with projects being run by global tech giants Google and IBM.

In 2019, Google disclosed that it had used its 53-qubit quantum computer to perform a calculation on an unidentified unique abstract problem that took 200 seconds to accomplish. Google, which hopes to build a one million-qubit quantum computer within 10 years, estimated that it would have taken the worlds most powerful supercomputer, at the time, 10,000 years to resolve and complete the same calculation.

For its part, IBM is engaged in a milestone project to build a quantum computer comprising 1,000 qubits by 2023. IBMs largest current quantum computer contains 65 qubits.

The VTT-IQM project will proceed in three stages. The first will involve the construction of a five-qubit computer by the year of 2021. The project will then be scaled up in 2022, parallel with enhancement of support infrastructure, to deliver the target 50-qubit machine in 2023.

Our focus is more on how effectively we use the qubits, rather than the number, said Goetz. We expect, that by 2024, we will be in a place where there is a high likelihood of simulating several real-world problems and start finding solutions with a quantum computer.

For instance, conducting quantum material simulations for chemistry applications such as molecule design for new drugs, or the discovery of chemical reaction processes to achieve superior battery and fertiliser production.

The Finnish governments direct funding of the project is driven by a broader mission to further elevate the countrys reputation as a European tech hub and computing superpower, said Mika Lintil, Finlands economic affairs minister.

We want Finland to harness its potential to become the European leader in quantum technologies, he added. By having this resource, we can explore the opportunities that quantum computing presents to Finnish and European businesses. We see quantum computing as a dynamic tool to drive competitiveness across the whole of the European Union.

Within VTT, the quantum computing project will run parallel with connected areas of application, including quantum sensors and quantum-encryption algorithms. Quantum sensors are becoming increasingly important tools in medical imaging and diagnostics, while quantum-encryption algorithms are being deployed more widely to protect information networks.

Quantum computing-specific applications have the capacity to empower businesses to answer complex problems in chemistry and physics that cannot be solved by current supercomputers, said VTT CEO Antti Vasara.

Investing in disruptive technologies like quantum computing means we are investing in our future ability to solve global problems and create sustainable growth, he said. Its a machine that has immense real-world applications that can make the impossible possible. It can be used to simulate or calculate how materials or medicinal drugs work at the atomic level.

In the future, quantum technologies will play a significant role in the accelerated development and delivery of new and critical vaccines.

Finlands advance into quantum computing will further enhance Helsinkis status as a Nordic and European hub for world-leading innovative ecosystems dedicated to new technologies.

The project will also bolster IQMs capacity to build Europes largest industrial quantum hardware team to support projects across Europe, said Goetz.

IQM established a strategic presence in Germany in 2020, following the German governments commitment to invest 2bn in a project to build two quantum computers.

We are witnessing a boost in deep-tech funding in Europe, said Goetz. Startups like us need access to three channels of funding to ensure healthy growth. We need research grants to stimulate new key innovations and equity investments to grow the company. We also require early adoption through acquisitions supported by the government. This combination of funding enables us to pool risk and create a new industry.

IQMs initial startup funding included a 3.3m grant from Business Finland, the governments innovation financing vehicle, in addition to 15m equity investment from the EIC (European Innovation Council) Accelerator programme.

The 71m harvested by IQM in 2020 ranks among the highest capital fund raising rounds by a European deep-tech startup in such a short period.

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Tech partnership to drive Finlands quantum computing project - ComputerWeekly.com