QuintessenceLabs, an industry leader in quantum cybersecurity, today announced it has been named the first private-sector member of the Quantum Security Alliance (QSA) Strategic Information Sharing Partnership (SISP) program. The QSA was established in December 2018 and has been working rapidly to provide context to the emerging security landscape for Quantum Computing (QC). In the last several years of activity, the QSA has worked on numerous efforts, including aiding the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), Quantum Tech Congress, and the National Defense University (NDU) in building a working knowledge-sharing model.
“QuintessenceLabs was one of the only companies we encountered that was more interested in the security challenges of quantum computing than in selling their own products,” said Dr. Merrick Watchorn, DMIST, co-founder of the QSA. “Our organization is currently made up of highly specialized scientists. The QSA has recently began the process of selecting private-sector organizations for its SISP program. The domain of Quantum Information Systems (QIS) continues to grow, and this joint venture provides opportunities for both organizations to share emerging concepts and ideas to increase ‘real world’ input on the state of QIS.”
According to Dr. Watchorn, who is also a sub-committee chair for the IEEE Quantum Cybersecurity for Next Generation Connectivity Systems, QuintessenceLabs will bring vital practical knowledge to the QSA based on its experience with various large organizations around the world. “It’s great to talk theoretically, but eventually you have to be able to say, ‘OK. Here’s what you can do about it.’ This is what we expect to get from QuintessenceLabs, as it becomes a SISP for the QSA and its academic partners,” he said.
Unlike other computing paradigms, like cloud, where security is an afterthought, the U.S. government and other large international bodies are trying to get ahead of the transition to quantum computing by studying security now. By doing so, they can vastly reduce long-term costs by doing security right from the start, rather than being in perpetual catch-up mode. One of the items the QSA and QuintessenceLabs will be working on is a polymorphic engine that will use a different cryptographic cipher for every piece of data being secured. This will capture the promise of zero-trust computing by making encrypted data virtually ‘unhackable.’
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“The risk posed by quantum computers is already upon us, even though the threat of large production quantum computers has yet to manifest,” said Silvio Pappalardo, chief revenue officer for QuintessenceLabs. “Threat actors – particularly nation states – are stealing data now, understanding that they can decrypt it later. These ‘harvest now, decrypt later (HNDL)’ attacks jeopardize encrypted data and are a threat to organizations whose most sensitive data is still valuable years down the road. We look forward to working with the QSA to stop this trend, and to turn its amazing research into practical solutions for large organizations of all types.”
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