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When Google said it had achieved quantum supremacy by eclipsing the performance of classical supercomputers, experts reacted with both excitement and concern about how next-generation computing could affect everything from medicine to financial portfolio optimisation.

In October, the tech group said its Sycamore quantum processor had, in 200 seconds, performed a task that would take the worlds best supercomputer 10,000 years to complete, although the magnitude of this claim is disputed by the likes of IBM.

Quantum computers which exploit the quirky behaviour of subatomic particles that can be in two states simultaneously may prove a useful technology for tasks requiring optimisation and comparison; that is, to find the best route or choice by examining all the options. This could range from finding the most cost-effective route for shipping goods to the most efficient way to extract natural resources.

Experts say quantum computing has the potential to transform materials science and drug development by comprehensively modelling molecules, while its ability to model interconnected dependencies could optimise financial portfolios.

However, cyber security experts and intelligence agencies worry that data security encryption systems will be blown away by the quantum tornado.

Encryption underpins everything from instant messaging services such as WhatsApp to online banking, ecommerce and secure web browsing. It uses algorithms to scramble data from the sender and gives the receiver a decryption key. These algorithms are based on mathematical functions that are easy to compute in one direction but hard to invert. Computing the product of two numbers is easy but factoring large prime numbers is difficult.

Even if the first quantum computer does not come for 20 years we are, in a sense, already late

Even with the biggest computers, factoring is hard once you are looking at numbers into, say, three or four hundred digits, says Christophe Petit, senior lecturer at Birmingham universitys School of Computer Science. There just isnt a method to efficiently solve that problem and encryption relies on that hardness.

With the extra power provided by quantum computers, problems such as factoring are easily scalable. The day a big quantum computer is built, all the cryptography we are using today is dead, warns Mr Petit.

It is uncertain when the first true quantum computer will arrive. There is also a long journey between building a computer with quantum-like properties compared with a full-scale, commercial version, partly because of the ultra-low temperature conditions required by quantum computers. However, there are fears that a malicious state could get far enough to wreak havoc.

Cracking encryption could enable a rogue actor to spy on communications and data including classified intelligence flowing between military agencies or gain backdoor access to critical infrastructures and facilities. Financial data also relies heavily on quantum-vulnerable encryption.

To crack encryption, all you need is one working quantum computer under laboratory conditions, says Andersen Cheng, chief executive of Post-Quantum, a cyber security company. Mr Cheng likens it to building an engine and gearbox compared with manufacturing an entire car. A lot of nation states are building quantum computers and they just need a working engine to start cracking encryption, he says.

In the public discourse, people are saying it will be 10 to 20 years until we have the first full commercially available quantum computer, says Mr Cheng. In the cyber security domain, they say it will be more like five to 10 years, but the intelligence community [has] become worried...over the past two years. They believe a working quantum computer will arrive much earlier than we think.

Wednesday, 20 November, 2019

Agencies including the National Security Agency and National Institute of Standards and Technology in the US, and Government Communications Headquarters in the UK, are working on post-quantum cyber security.

To build quantum-resistant encryption, cyber teams seek out categories of problems for which simultaneous processing power confers no advantage. These should be problems that are already understood but take substantial time to solve.

Lattice-based cryptography is a leading approach explored by the likes of IBM. It uses high-dimension geometric structures to hide information in ways considered impossible to solve without the key, even for quantum computers. An alternative technique, borrowed from the satellite industry, deliberately introduces random errors into the encryption process to make the output look different every time, even if the same input is being encrypted, according to Mr Cheng.

While a small network of cyber researchers has been exploring post-quantum security protocols for decades, experts say we need to raise the pace. We want to be ready not just when quantum computers come out but 20 years earlier, says Mr Petit. We should be rolling out encryption in evoting systems, medical data, and aircraft, for instance that will be secure for decades. Even if the first quantum computer does not come for 20 years we are, in a sense, already late.

See the original post:
Race is on to build quantum-proof encryption - Financial Times

Telecom giant NTT Group is offering record pay to hire top scientists as it looks to match some of the basic research prowess of global powerhouses including Alphabet Inc. and Apple Inc.

The former Japanese telephone monopoly has set annual salaries of as much as $1 million (108.45 million) for researchers at its labs in Palo Alto, California, said Kazuhiro Gomi, president of the companys research arm. Thats more than the company pays its chief executive officer and 41-year veteran Jun Sawada, and a rare step for a traditional Japanese company like NTT.

The increased investment in basic science comes as NTT is regrouping its businesses to focus more on cloud computing services and data centers amid a dimming outlook for profit from its mainstay mobile phone carrier. Having star scientists on the labs payroll, backed by a 25 billion five-year budget, helps the group draw better technology workers and partners as it wages a global war for the top talent it needs to expand globally, Gomi said.

We are competing with companies like Google and Apple, said Gomi, explaining that the company had traditionally followed the Japanese norm of modest pay. It wouldnt be possible several years back.

Tatsuaki Okamoto, director of cryptography & information security for NTT Research, is an example of a star that has helped draw in other top researchers in encryption, where interest in cryptocurrencies has led to surging demand for expertise. Okamoto, an NTT R&D fellow since 1999, is known globally as a key researcher on block-chain technologies for cryptocurrencies.

The talent NTT is gathering is focused on cryptography, quantum computing and medical informatics in a bet that these fields can yield breakthroughs on a horizon of five years or more, said Kei Karasawa, vice president of corporate strategy for NTT Research.

The lab also needs big name scientists because for most top researchers, high pay alone isnt enough, said Karasawa. Scientists strongly prefer to work with the leaders in their field, he said.

Moreover, NTTs pay isnt at the top of the range in all fields. Oracle Corp., the software-maker racing to catch Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. in cloud computing, offered a pay package worth $6 million to hire a single expert in artificial intelligence, Business Insider reported. And while $1 million a year dwarfs the pay of many IT professionals, its far less than what most chief executives make at global companies of NTTs scale.

That too is a contrast with Japan, where average CEO pay at top companies is less than $1 million, compared with more than 10 times that for the average U.S. boss of a big firm.

NTT is pushing for overseas growth while forecasting a 13 percent drop in net income at NTT Docomo Inc. this fiscal year, following a 16 percent decline in the previous year. NTT said it was forming a global technology and services provider by combining the capabilities of 28 of its companies including NTT Communications Corp., Dimension Data Holdings PLC and NTT Security Corp. The goal is to create a top 5 global technology and business solutions provider with $20 billion in revenue outside Japan, Sawada said at the time.

Cryptography, the science of encoding and decoding data to maintain privacy, is fundamental to the internets security and plays a role in blockchain and cryptocurrencies, two red-hot areas of research and development. Quantum computing, which uses properties of quantum mechanics to speed up processing, has the potential to help discover new drugs and improve the algorithms that shape industrial logistics and supply chains.

The third area, medical informatics, presents an opportunity to apply powerful computing technologies to mapping molecules in a way that can help scientists better understand viruses and how to combat them.

More here:
NTT offers researchers $1 million salaries in bid to lure top talent in cryptography, quantum computing - The Japan Times