review articles
CYBER SECURITY DEALS with the protection of computer
systems from attacks that could compromise the
hardware, software or information. These attacks,
by allowing unauthorized use, could leak private
information and cause damage or disruption. In the
future, the part of everyday life and economy requiring
computer systems is bound to increase further and
become fully dominant. Cyber warfare and cyber crime
will be common and the role of cyber security crucial.
SINCE THE COMPUTER systems (and attackers) evolve
both in hardware and software, the constant evolution
of this field is of high importance. Arguably the most
dramatic development that one can envision is a
change in the paradigm of computational model used.
Quantum technologies appear to bring us close to
such a change. Here, we explore the research field that
lies on the intersection of cyber security and quantum
technologies research.
The dawn of the quantum technologies era. One of the major scientific revolutions of the 20th century was the development of quantum theory. From its
early days,
33 all the way until the development of the full mathematical formalism38 and the subsequent development of first wave of applications (for
example, transistors, laser, superconductors, among others) quantum theory has been very successful in many
different settings being confirmed in
unprecedented accuracy (record accuracy of 10–8 for the anomalous magnetic dipole moment).
24 Crucial in this
first wave of applications was the new
understanding of nature that quantum
theory provided. However, the ability
to control quantum systems as desired
was limited, putting restrictions on the
class of technological applications that
one could envision.
In recent years this has changed16
and the control of quantum systems
has advanced considerably, while further progress appears very plausible in
the near future due to the increased interest and investments as well as the scientific breakthroughs that have already
occurred. Many countries all around
the globe have launched national
Cyber
Security
in the
Quantum Era
DOI: 10.1145/3241037
Quantum systems will significantly affect
the field of cyber security research.
BY PETROS WALLDEN AND ELHAM KASHEFI
key insights
˽ Quantum computers will pose a significant
threat for cyber security. When large
fault-tolerant quantum computers are
constructed the most commonly used
cryptosystems will break. Therefore dealing
with this threat is crucial and timely.
˽ Securing fully classical protocols
against quantum-technology-equipped
adversaries is possible but requires extra
care that goes beyond a careful choice of
cryptosystems.
˽ Quantum technologies will also have
a positive impact on cyber security.
Quantum devices with current state-of-the-art technology can be used to
enhance the security by achieving tasks
impossible classically, such as, secret-key expansion with perfect security.
Since quantum computers will become
an integral part of our future network
of communications and computations,
we need to develop practical ways to
use the quantum computers with same
security guarantees with those of secure
(classical) computing.