Statista reports that one of the most significant cyberattacks to date was the security breach of India’s national ID database Aadhaar in early 2018, which resulted in the loss of over 1.1 billion records. It included biometric information such as iris and fingerprint scans that could be used to open bank accounts and receive financial aid and other government services. Two years earlier, a 2014 hack of Yahoo’s online platform had been uncovered, affecting at least 500 million user accounts.
These attacks, but on a smaller scale, are constantly shaking companies around the world. Data leakage is becoming a real problem and threat to all of us. It is impossible to make payments and register on the Internet if you do not feel the security and protection of your data.
That is why the issue of cybersecurity has become a matter of the state level.
At the recent G7 Summit, it was announced to create a new international consortium of companies and government organizations that will focus on cybersecurity.
Summit decisions
To reduce the number of cyberattacks, the G7 countries announced that they would create a federated quantum system, known as FQS, including governments and commercial partners.
What is the advantage of FQS?
Forbes writes that ransomware has grown by 150% or more since early 2021, with an estimated $ 1.4 billion or more damage.
The encryption methods used previously can no longer withstand such powerful attacks.
A federated quantum system differs from other encryption methods in that it is based on technology that protects network devices from attempts to break into computers.
How does it work?
This technology creates an “unbreakable” encryption key used by the satellite, which then sends quantum data to the data center.
The company that develops this technology claims that quantum computing technology for symmetric encryption is much safer than systems based on public-key cryptography.
What is quantum computing?
Quantum computing is a subdivision of quantum informatics that includes quantum networks, quantum sensing, and quantum modeling. Such computations are capable of generating and using quantum bits or qubits.
Quantum computers can solve specific problems much faster than conventional computers or other classical computers.
Quantum computing and cybersecurity.
Today we use two types of digital encryption: symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric occurs when the sender and receiver have duplicate digital keys to encrypt and decrypt data. Asymmetric – generates a public key that encrypts messages for a recipient with a private key to decrypt.
Quantum computing helps speed up the decryption of information protected by modern public essential encryption methods. In 1994, Peter Shore suggested that a large, fault-tolerant quantum computer could find the prime factors of integers in a short time.
However, it will take decades to develop quantum-resistant encryption and transition to a new security protocol. That is why governments around the world and the business community must be proactive.
What will happen next?
Arqit company plans to release the first version of its software in the nearest time. The system is slated to go live in the next two years. Today, all of its web development services are focused on putting the first versions of its software into production.
After the system is running, its users will be able to exchange messages with each other safely: FQS will be closed in such a way as to facilitate cooperation between the participating countries.
