As the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, said in a statement Wednesday:
"The United States faces untold numbers of cyber threats from malicious foreign actors, both to the government agencies and private industry, and sometimes both at the same time. The seriousness and duration of this attack demonstrate that we still have enormous and urgent work to do to defend our critical information and networks, that we must move quicker than our adversaries do to adapt."
We are in unprecedented situation and privacy is no longer a fundamental right.
Our global communication structure is broken, and as we can see every day, every piece of information is now unsafe.
According to the World Economic Forum, the cost of cybercrime will reach up to $1 Trillion in 2020. On the other end, the unprecedented situation due to Covid-19 dramatically compromises the nation’s cyber defense and companies’ cyber resilience.
But if we often speak about Russia’s hackers, we shall also keep in mind China, which is very active in this field.
And China is probably a bigger player than Russia as its government has heavily invested in technology for decades.
China started its QUESS (Quantum Experiment at Space Scale) Project at the beginning of 2000 to develop Quantum Encryption and Quantum Teleportation Technology and launched its first Quantum Satellite in September 2016.
All this puts China far ahead of rivals in mastering Hack-Proof Communications.
Moreover, this Quantum Technology Development, capable of generating entangled photons in space, is part of China’s Space Program, which includes the Anti-Satellite Missile Program.
World Leadership on Encryption is no longer in the United States, and all current communication, from classified government information to bank transactions, is dramatically unsafe.
Any long-term security-sensitive information shall be quantum-resistant encrypted now. The public key systems - aka Asymmetric cryptography - uses two different keys:
▪ One Public key made public and used for encryption
▪ One Secret key kept secret and used for decryption
These systems are computationally intensive and require massive computing power. They are not adapted for the encryption of large amounts of data.
Furthermore, Public-Key cryptographic systems (PKI) are based on computational complexity and will soon be dead with Quantum Computer’s advent.
On the other end, the safety of Secret Key systems – aka Symmetric cryptography - does not rely on computational complexity but one secret-key shared between two users. The same key is used for encrypting and decrypting the data.
Since 2001, the Secret-Key is used in the worldwide Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
AES-128 and SHA-256 are considered quantum-resistant according to the evaluation criteria in the NIST PQC (post-quantum cryptography) standardization project.
Most implementations utilize public key systems to transmit a short secret key used in secret-key systems for encrypting the data.
But for sensitive data - such as military-technical documentation - that needs to be kept safe for a long time (between 50 to 75 years), the key distribution must rely on another channel.
So far, the only alternative is Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), which relies on the transmission of a secure cryptographic key used to encrypt and decrypt messages between two ground stations.
There are so far two solutions for quantum-safe encryption:
▪ New quantum-resistant algorithms
But the security of these new algorithms is not proven, and the quantum computer will break them.
▪ Ground-Based Quantum Key Distribution (QKD)
But even this new technology will never be threatened by the quantum computer, it has a fundamental limitation: the distance.
Quantum Key Distribution relies on the transmission of a physical element – a pair of entangled photons sent with random polarization – between two users to generate the secret-key, each party receiving half of the pair.
According to The Uncertainty Principle, the confidentiality of the key exchanged over a quantum channel is guaranteed by the very principles of quantum physics, which states that the more precisely the position of one particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum can be predicted, and vice versa.
This quantum ciphering system immediately locates an intrusion and blocks the communication until another quantum encryption key is returned.
But QKD range is limited by the physical phenomena of absorption in optical fibers, and in the atmosphere, diffraction in free space relies on the physical transmission of single photons.
So, even this technology is continually evolving, QKD over optical fiber network is currently limited to about 100 miles on the ground.
Long-Distance communications require the deployment of regularly spaced “trusted nodes”. Quantum Technologies Laboratories, Inc. is a global cybersecurity firm based in New York City.
We help our corporate and public customers to protect their most crucial information using quantum resistant encryption.
We have developed Quantum Trilogy®, a new generation technology using quantum physics.
Our technology uses optical systems to generate random numbers to make voice and e-mail communications virtually unbreakable.
Our Ecosystem is built on Open-Source Software protected by Proprietary Quantum Hardware.
We use quantum physics to power encryption and key distribution via a Proprietary Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG).
Our technology operates at scale and is unlimited in scope.
So, no matter your connection to the Internet, WIFI, Ethernet or Mobile Network, our End-to-End Encryption keeps your communications fully secure.
To overcome optic fiber distance limitation, we are currently working on a new QKD from Space technology built on two Key Elements:
▪ A Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellite
Used as an intermediate trusted node between remote users, this Quantum Satellite Technology will remove the fundamental distance limitation.
▪ A New Quantum Channel Protocol
A modified optical communication channel designed to transfer single photons links the satellite to ground terminals.
This QKDS protocol will set a new era in global secure communications.
The Quantum Satellite acts as a trusted node where encryption keys are generated and stored safely.
The Quantum Satellite exchanges keys with one ground terminal, then flies over a second ground terminal to exchange a second key and later connects the two ground terminals.
The ground terminals can connect single users or might be used as gateways for ground QKD networks.
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Quantum Technologies Laboratories, Inc.
Alain Obadia
alain.obadia@quantumtrilogy.com
www.quantumtrilogy.com
60 Madison Avenue
Suite 1010
New York, NY 10010