EU Nations Agree to Study Quantum Computing Infrastructure
The future is quantum: EU countries plan ultra-secure communication network
Excerpts and salient points ~
+ 7 EU countries (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, and Spain) signed a declaration agreeing to explore together, over the next 12 months, how to develop and deploy a quantum communication infrastructure (QCI) across the EU within the next ten years.
All sectors of our economy and society have the potential to benefit from deploying a quantum secure communication infrastructure all over the EU. This infrastructure will be able to secure financial transactions, keep the transmission, protection and long-term storage of sensitive data safe, and ensure the sovereignty of sensitive governmental information. In a world where securing our information online is of the utmost importance, Europe cannot afford to lag behind.
+ The QCI will help Europe to secure its critical infrastructure and encryption systems against cyber threats, protecting smart energy grids, air traffic control, banks, healthcare facilities and more from hacking. It will also enable data centres to store and exchange information safely, and will preserve the long-term privacy of government data. The long-term plan is for the QCI infrastructure to become the backbone for Europe’s Quantum Internet, connecting quantum computers, simulators and sensors via quantum networks to distribute information and resources securely all over Europe.
+ The first service to make use of this new infrastructure will be Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). QKD is an extremely secure form of encryption: it uses the principles of quantum mechanics to provide the sender and recipient of an encrypted message with an intrinsically secure random key in such a way that an attacker cannot eavesdrop or control the system. QKD can secure confidential data, power grids, government communications and digital transactions, even against crypto code-breaking by the quantum computers of the future.
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