Quantum Safe?

First, a caution

I feel I must address something that’s been in the news recently - DeepSeek. To cut right to the chase, do not use DeepSeek! Don’t use the app and don’t go to its website. I’ll explain. Regardless of how “good” the AI is supposed to be, you should know that it’s produced by a company based in the People’s Republic of China and all the data they gather from and about you is stored in China. Their Terms of Service state that they collect and store your typing patterns and information they gather from their “partners” - for instance, web sites where they advertise. Further, you should know that all companies based in China are required to turn over any information requested by the government. They can gather lots of information about you even if you just go to their website or open their app. Yes, it’s free but, in all likelihood, the service and app were financed by the Chinese government. So, I heartily recommend that you stay away from DeepSeek, its website and its app. And if you have the app on any of your devices, delete it.

Why talk about “quantum?”

My last few items have been regarding practical applications but I have also tried to give you an introduction to topics that you were likely to hear or read about in the news. Some examples are Bitcoin (and cryptocurrency in general), Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence. This time, along the lines of introducing you to something you’re likely to hear about, we’ll discuss quantum. Specifically, quantum computing and quantum safe.

Quantum computers and computing

The quantum scale is tiny. It’s smaller than the atomic scale. Quantum computers make use of some elements at this scale. Quantum physics is very different from what we are used to and quantum computers make use of these elements as opposed to what’s used in today’s “classical computers” (that is the computers that are in wide use today). It’s a radically different way to approach computing and it can produce answers much more quickly than classical computers can. Google once said that one of their quantum computers solved a problem in 5 minutes that would take a classical computer 10 septillion years (or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years).

Quantum computing is still in its very early stages. Even so, there are companies that are producing commercially viable quantum computers - Rigetti Computing, whose stock symbol is RGTI, and D-Wave Quantum Computing (QBTS) are two examples. You might hear mention of a qbit which is the quantum equivalent to a classical computer’s bit. A qbit can have one of 3 states while a classical bit can have 2 states. It’s this property along with some other things including the fact that qbits operate much faster than a bit that gives a quantum computer much of its power.

Quantum safe

You will also likely hear terms like quantum safe and quantum safe encryption. These terms reflect the fact that quantum technology can be highly resistant to being read and understood by unauthorized people (who are often called hackers because they “hack” their way into being able to read the data). Why does this matter to us? Well, it doesn’t actually matter today because there are no quantum computers powerful enough to be able to hack your data but that day isn’t far off. Your providers who are responsible for keeping your data safe should be working on it today.

Many things that we use every day on our computers or smart devices use a technology called encryption. Encryption ensures that the only parties that can see the data being transmitted or received are the sender and the receiver. It does this by encrypting the data before it’s sent and decrypting the data on the receiving end. Classical computers are incapable of hacking properly encrypted data quickly enough to make use of it. What are some common things that are encrypted today? Your web session with your bank, or store, how your credit card data is stored at Amazon and other places, how your password is stored at the sites and apps that you log into. And if you use a password manager all of the data stored by the password manager is encrypted. Because quantum computers can operate so much faster than classical computers the method used to encrypt your data must be very different. The methods used to secure your data from quantum computers are called quantum safe encryption. Quantum computers will become more powerful over time in the same way that classical computers have gotten more powerful. What is considered quantum safe today will probably not be quantum safe in the future so, over time, you’ll see changes in quantum safe encryption methods. You shouldn’t have to do anything to adapt to these new methods, they should be handled for you.

That’s all for this time

I hope I’ve given you an introduction to quantum computing and quantum safe encryption that is sufficient for you to have a basic understanding of the terms, what they mean, and how they apply to us. Don't hesitate to write to me if you have questions!

As always, my intent is to help you understand the basics and equip you to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, to sign up for my newsletter, or whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI!

If you like, you can read my most recent newsletter in the Hillsboro Times Gazette at https://go.ttot.link/TG-Column - I should have that link updated shortly after this edition of the newsletter appears in the online version of the newspaper.