This video is part of the TechXchanges: Cybersecurity and Quantum Computing and Security.
Quantum computing is a branch of applied science that harnesses quantum phenomena to process information in a completely different process than that used with binary computing systems. Quantum computers are in the process of significantly expanding computing power, which creates opportunities for improving cybersecurity. Properly deployed quantum-era cybersecurity can detect and deflect cyberattacks.
However, quantum computing may also create new exposures, so businesses and other organizations should start preparing today. In this second part of a three-part series, we talk to Skip Sanzeri, Co-Founder, Board Chair, and COO of QuSecure, about how quantum computing is making cybersecurity more complex than ever in today's cloud-based data-oriented world. Companies like QuSecure provide post-quantum cybersecurity, security resilient against quantum-computing attacks.
A quantum computer is different from compute platforms we're using for applications from servers to satellites that employ CMOS technology and math based on zeros and ones. Quantum computers are based on subatomic properties such as superposition and entanglement.
Several years ago, organizations and companies began building computers based on these subatomic properties. Superposition means that instead of being in the state of zero and one, a quantum computer can be in any and all states at the same time, leveraging Wave-Particle Duality. Therefore, when something is in a wave function, it can be anything in anywhere.
When you take subatomic particles and leave them in superposition, you're able to also use entanglement,. That means all of the particles are behaving together. So, when you run a transaction or a process, you get an exponential effect.
For example, if you had 50 servers in a server room and you added one or two more, you'd have 51, then you'd have 52 servers. But with subatomic particles, if you have 50 subatomic particles running a process, and add one or two more, you have two to the 51st, then you have two to the 52nd. It's exponential, which is why quantum computers have so much promise.
Currently, quantum computers are roughly in the 100-qubit era, and that's two to the 100th power. A 300-qubit computer would have more capability of processing units than there are atoms in the entire universe. The security issue is that quantum computers are very good at hacking because our entire internet is based on a single transaction, which is solving for a fact, two numbers that factor into a larger one. The danger now is that quantum computers could break all of our encryption, forcing the largest upgrade cycle of computer history.
Part 1: Cybersecurity from the Developer's Seat
Part 2: What's So Special Special About Quantum Computing? (video above)
Part 3: Why Quantum Cybersecurity is Imperative