Keeping Quantum Computing Reports From Lying. Numerous salient points regarding the confidentiality and integrity of data being espoused by quantum computing devices. Having been on the cybersecurity side of classical computing for years, the topic discussed in the Communications of the ACM piece, Questioning Quantum, bears consideration. Qubit.
Excerpts and salient points:
- When they do finally arrive, quantum computers pose a number of problems for computer scientists when it comes to determining whether they work as expected. Quantum computers can make use of the property of superposition: where the bits in a register in the machine do not exist in a single known state, but in a combination of states. Each state has a finite probability of being the one recorded when the register is read and the superposition collapses.
- Without a radical improvement in technology, production machines are likely to be large, expensive, and only suitable for use as coprocessors for specific problems. The most likely usage model is as a server accessed using the conventional Internet, or a network able to support communication based on quantum states.
- California Institute of Technology researcher Alexandru Gheorghiu points out a number of potential problems a remote user will face: “If this communication is performed over a network, one can imagine man-in-the-middle attacks in which malicious parties are trying to deceive us. Alternatively, it could be that the party claiming to have a quantum computer is lying,” Gheorghiu says.
Source: Communications of the ACM. Chris Edwards, Questioning Quantum…
