Quantum News

07 Oct 2023: Quantum computers may still be years away, but it’s prudent that end-to-end encryption providers are ramping up defences A pressing question, then, is when that moment may arrive. At present, nobody really knows. It’s a bit like nuclear fusion. Quantum evangelists claim that it’s only a few years away. At the high end, some observers think it’s 30-plus years away and there are sceptics who find the whole idea implausible. But then it’s not that long since people thought that large language models were pie in the sky.

07 Oct 2023: Fujitsu and RIKEN in Japan launched a 64-qubit superconducting quantum computer and are constructing a 1000-qubit one. Besides providing this technology on the new hybrid quantum computing platform, Fujitsu will work to create a computing workload broker, an AI-based software that automatically selects computing resources and algorithms to solve customer problems.

02 Oct 2023: One of the most well-established and disruptive uses for a future quantum computer is the ability to crack encryption. A new algorithm could significantly lower the barrier to achieving this. The saving grace has been that today’s quantum processors are a long way from the kind of scale required. But according to a report in Science, New York University computer scientist Oded Regev has discovered a new algorithm that could reduce the number of qubits required substantially.

26 Sep 2023: The data we’re encrypting online today—from financial and personal identification information to military operations and intelligence data—could be quickly decrypted in the future by an adversary with access to a cryptographically relevant quantum computer. To drive progress toward broader understanding and public adoption of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) PQC algorithms, a community of technologists, researchers, and expert practitioners launched the PQC Coalition. Founding coalition members include IBM Quantum, Microsoft, MITRE, PQShield, SandboxAQ, and University of Waterloo.

25 Sep 2023: Signal has announced that it upgraded its end-to-end communication protocol to use quantum-resistant encryption keys to protect users from future attacks. Signal explains that its “X3DH” (Extended Triple Diffie-Hellman) key agreement protocol has been upgraded to “PQXDH” (Post-Quantum Extended Diffie-Hellman), which incorporates quantum-resistant secret key generation mechanisms for Signal’s end-to-end encryption (E2EE) specification.

21 Sep 2023: Intel is developing a successor to its Tunnel Falls quantum processor, aiming to leverage its expertise in silicon-based technology to improve qubit quality and scalability, potentially advancing applications in AI, materials science, and cryptography.

18 Sep 2023: Researchers from the University of Texas, El Paso have developed a highly magnetic quantum computing material that retains its magnetism at room temperature. The material, which does not contain high-demand rare earth minerals, exhibits superparamagnetic behavior, making it a potential option for creating qubits, the basic unit of quantum information. By synthesizing the material in a sequential process, the researchers were able to produce a material 100 times more magnetic than pure iron.

13 Sep 2023: There is already more than enough reason to upgrade our communications systems to resist attacks from quantum computers as soon as possible. Even if completely unexpected attacks from a black-swan quantum computer are unlikely, attacks from known or suspected quantum computers would already be plenty bad enough.

11 Sep 2023: Researchers have pioneered a groundbreaking technique utilizing laser light to control individual qubits made of barium more robustly than any other method currently known. Reliably controlling qubits is a critical step towards actualizing functional quantum computers of the future.

10 Sep 2023: Chinese scientists have made a significant breakthrough in the development of practical processors for quantum computers. Previous studies were only able to entangle two atoms at a time, but the team was able to entangle eight and 10 ultracold atoms in two-dimensional blocks and one-dimensional chains respectively.