Protection Against a Rapidly Spreading Cyber Pandemic
With the Covid-19 pandemic, cybercriminals have seized on this global crisis to launch treacherous cyber exploits. The new normal has led to a rise in sophisticated Gen V cyberattacks, including targeted ransomware. Could the way to remove all the obstacles now lie in Quantum Computers? How Could Quantum Computers Change Cybersecurity?
It is widely accepted that the next world war will be a hybrid war in which businesses and governments are targeted by cyberattacks, destruction and espionage. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and at a time when everything is becoming interconnected, smart and automated, it is highly likely that the next global crisis will also include a catastrophic cybersecurity pandemic. There is no doubt that threats from hostile countries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are growing. As more systems are connected to the internet, including critical national infrastructure (CNI) such as water and electricity that relies on supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, the possibility of a cyberattack causing damage in real life is becoming frighteningly real.
Quantum computing and quantum photonic computers can perform far faster and more complex operations in a short time than the computers we use today. Although these computers have not yet found a place in everyday life like the ones we use on our desks, what they can do and their capacity look set to change a great many things. Such power also attracts the interest of hackers, and there is concern that this power may threaten cybersecurity as well.
Quantum programming makes use of an interesting property of subatomic particles: their ability to exist in several different states at the same time. When particles are this small, thanks to their movement and behaviour they can carry out operations very quickly while using far less energy. In classical computing technologies, 1 bit represents one unit of information, and this bit can exist in only two states: 1 or 0.
Quantum computing, on the other hand, uses the quantum bit, in other words the “qubit”, instead of the classical bit. This means that in a quantum system more information can be stored in a single bit, without running into the limit on the amount of information a bit can carry when it consists only of 0 and 1. In addition, with its speed in finding random large prime numbers, it takes encryption techniques to entirely different places. As is well known, prime numbers, and large ones in particular, are very important in encryption.
24 Thousand Times Faster
According to a report in The Dailystar, a group of Chinese scientists announced in May 2017 that they had built the first photonic quantum computer in Shanghai. It was claimed that this computer could, at that time, perform operations 24 thousand times faster than a classical supercomputer. Pan Jianwei, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a leading quantum physicist, says that the quantum computer makes use of the fundamental principle of quantum superposition to enable ultra-fast parallel computation and simulation capabilities.
Such powerful computers also attract the interest of hackers. Concerns that quantum photonic computers will be used for hacking in the future are growing as this technology develops. According to CSO Online, the e-mail addresses we use every day, our online banking accounts and the updates we upload to our social media accounts actually contain a range of software that is open to being hacked. Indeed, even smart devices, today’s cars that receive automatic software updates and smart televisions can fall into malicious hands and are in a position to be hacked quickly.
So how will quantum computers change cybersecurity? New-generation quantum computing has the potential to change cybersecurity. Raconteur.com examines this subject under five headings:
Speed: Because of the speed developed for solving complex mathematical problems, quantum computers have become a game-changing technology for cybersecurity. Rik Ferguson, Vice President of Security Research at Trend Micro, says that traditional computers struggle with mathematical problems compared with quantum computers, and that the more complicated the problem is, the later the answer is reached: “Being able to perform complex encryption with large prime numbers means carrying out large, time-consuming operations, whereas with traditional encryption methods this time is shorter for hackers. It also means being able to carry out large operations quickly. One innovation the quantum computer will bring is being able to solve in seconds an operation that would normally take years. When these computers develop in the field of providing security and reach their true capacity, they will be able to carry out large, very long-running operations at the speed of light.”
Protection: According to IBM computer scientist Leigh Chase, looking at the methods used in data transfer, we can say that the feats of quantum computers, the paths they will open and their effects are not possible in today’s existing IT world. Superposition is expected to offer new benefits in data processing, in cryptographic encryption and, for example, in random number generation. So if all this speed and encryption capability arrives, will the crypto systems used up to now have been thrown in the bin because of quantum computers? According to IBM, for the time being we should give thought to the question of encryption in quantum security and continue to use the advantages of existing systems.
Risks: The layers of encryption that quantum power will bring will make us feel safer. But it should not be forgotten that even these technologies cannot promise 100 per cent security. According to FireEye risk analyst Parnian Najafi, the system known as Shor’s Algorithm, on which quantum photonic computers run, actually creates new risks in existing encryption systems. According to Najafi, quantum computers will not be computers that hackers and cybercriminals can easily access. Najafi says: “Existing quantum computers need a temperature of zero degrees in order to have an environment in which they can work regularly and stably. In this way they can stay away from other radio waves and noise in the environment. Providing the necessary conditions in this working environment will also be very difficult for personal use.”
Security: So will there be a quantum apocalypse in the near future, and will cryptocurrencies be in the firing line too? According to research by the security company FireEyes, work to make the crypto world more “unbreakable” is continuing apace. Harnessing quantum power is part of this work. In fact, quantum work also demands extra effort to prevent misuse. According to Ramses Gallego, Security Strategist at Symantec, with a computer that can run Shor’s Algorithm efficiently and regularly we could do things we cannot even imagine today. However, such processing power and speed in the hands of cybercriminals could mean an incredible weapon for attacking large organisations and companies. They are trying to prevent this by writing new “quantum-proof” algorithms.
Resilience: Will humankind be able to build a truly unhackable system using quantum computers? According to Joe Pindar, a product manager at the company Gemalto, the Swedish government and Swedish banks are using the first prototypes of quantum processors. The reason for this is the success of quantum computers in generating random numbers, thanks to which it is as if you had produced a “single-use banknote”, and with a special encryption method this is considered “unhackable”. Pindar also says that “the algorithms used today, for example those that encrypt and store government documents, use a different technique from the algorithms used in archiving legal documents”, and adds: “We can say that quantum computers will not be able to easily break the encryption techniques used today.”
Keywords: COVID19 Russia Quantum
Translated from the Turkish original.