The Quantum Secret Service
Secure Off-Premises Quantum Computing
The U.S. Secret Service has a dual mission, and one part of that mission is protection. It protects specific VIPs at home, in-transit, at work, and/or at events. It employs broad measures to succeed.
VeriQloud has taken upon itself a similar mission, but in regard to your data. Think about some of the reasons why you would want to have a quantum computer on-premises, and data protection might be one of those. Unfortunately, there are a myriad of factors why having an on-premises quantum computer might be infeasible, including cost, expertise, and others. You might have little choice but to move your data, and you might not have a quantum channel available.
VeriQloud wants to be your data’s protective detail with a scheme it calls Secure Delegated Quantum Computing (SDQC).
Follow the data.
As already noted, Secret Service agents go wherever their protectee goes. In a similar manner, VeriQloud follows your data. The former adapts to specific individuals, while the latter adapts to your specific applications; the software is adaptable to the hardware you choose to use, including dark fiber QKD networks. And neither uses just one “agent,” of course; Qasmat software protects your data at rest (in storage), Qline software protects your data in transit, and your data is encoded as quantum information while in use.
What makes this approach interesting is that it’s not about networking quantum computers and quantum sensors over quantum networks, nor is it about secure general communication using QKD. The focus is on quantum applications — data and algorithms — and providing secure access to and from quantum computers.
To be clear: Qasmat is not adaptable off-the-shelf, but it is nonetheless adaptable. The software is ready to be implemented with post-quantum cryptography (PQC), quantum key distribution (QKD), and quantum networks.
“Data currently transmitted (…) is vulnerable to “store now, break later” attacks since public internet traffic is easily duplicable.”
- Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
What’s wrong with the cloud?
When was the last time the American President rode public transportation or flew commercial? Doing either would pose a security nightmare, so it doesn’t happen. It’s forbidden.
The problem with cloud-based quantum computing is that you’re delegating security to cloud services as you would delegate security at a bus station, train terminal, or airport. You might generally trust them, as billions of travelers around the world do daily, just as you trust the cloud for emails and social networking. But your data is a VIP and needs more than this standard protection.
Distribute everything.
It’s no secret that when the American President moves, decoy vehicles are deployed. There’s not just one limousine, one helicopter, or one airplane; there’s at least one duplicate so that his exact whereabouts cannot be known. It’s not an exact analogy, but VeriQloud plays a similar game of deception with would-be adversaries.
When we think of “distributed quantum computing,” we think about using multiple quantum computers to solve problems that are too large for individual quantum computers. VeriQloud redefines the concept from a security standpoint. Imagine that you have three parties, with one holding the data, one holding the algorithm, and one with the quantum computer. Compromising one does not compromise everything. You’re not necessarily using multiple quantum computers, but you’re using multiple servers; you’re distributing the components of your application.
Its Qasmat software extends this protection by dividing and distributing your data. Normally, we think about distributing data in regard to business continuity and disaster recovery. But Qasmat distributes your data across multiple servers in such a way so that attacking one server does not compromise all of your data. For even greater security, it’s compatible with quantum key distribution (QKD).
Secure Delegated Quantum Computing (SDQC) can be thought of as distributed quantum computing with these additional layers of protection. It builds on top of Qline and Qasmat.
It’s been demonstrated.
The origin of the technology dates back to 2009, with the first experiments in 2011 and 2013. It is currently capable of local and metropolitan distances, as demonstrated with Deutsche Telekom: “Multi-client distributed blind quantum computation with the Qline architecture.” VeriQloud doesn’t provide the networks, so scaling depends, in part, on the maturation of the hardware technologies.
As published in “Verifiable blind quantum computing with trapped ions and single photons,” SDQC with quantum computers has been experimentally demonstrated in research laboratories with photons and trapped ions. We’re talking about transmitting data, so the easiest implementations use modalities that can connect quantum computers to networks. Using other modalities, such as neutral atoms and superconducting qubits, requires additional research.
Personal note: Given the volume of research that is going into networking neutral atom quantum computers, I would speculate that neutral atoms will be next.
Conclusion
There are a lot of details here that are way beyond the scope of this article. The key takeaway is that if you’ve got data and algorithms, someone else has quantum computers, and you want to securely use those quantum computers, VeriQloud might have the solution for you. I asked about cases in which governments impose restrictions, and the company is willing to work the problem. The premise is that inputs, outputs, and algorithms are all concealed, so no one can see what is being exchanged. Is that enough? Feel free to ask questions.
"President of the United States Beast Motorcade Vehicle Secret Service" by Anthony Quintano is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.