New encryption to prevent quantum cyber-attacks

New encryption to prevent quantum cyber-attacks

QT News, February 27 2020

The progress being made in quantum computing highlights the potential risks in digital security, such as instantaneously unravelling confidential banking, medical and national security data, an increasing likelihood.

With fears growing that citizens’ digital information such as WhatsApp messages, personal emails, health information, or banking transactions – could become vulnerable to cyber-attacks, a secure line of defence is more critical than ever.

Scientists at the EU’s €1 billion Quantum Technology (QT) Flagship initiative have developed novel prototypes that use quantum encryption protocols to create the most secure transmission of sensitive information through the internet.

The QT Flagship is supporting four consortia that are making our data highly secure: the CiViQ consortium has developed efficient QKD protocols to secure this critical digital information; researchers at QRANGE have created quantum random number generators that can be implemented in such protocols; and UNIQORN scientists are searching for ways to miniaturise QKD down to the chip-scale to be easily integrated into any consumer device. Finally, researchers from QIA are aiming to put this all together, hardware and software, to build the future quantum internet.

Project Coordinator at QRANGE, Professor Hugo Zbinden said: “There is a risk of being hacked with our classical computers and pseudo-random number generators given that they provide random bit sequences that have certain patterns. Numbers generated by a QRNG, on the other hand, cannot be predicted – and are thus provably unpredictable.”

Read the full story here.

This has also been picked up in the following articles:

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