The Quantum Tech Company Making Advances in Secure Communications

Organisations and governments around the world are in the middle of what is essentially a quantum arms race at the moment. Scientists have been making breakthroughs in the development of quantum computers, and while that might sound like good news, it could mean the end of secure communication. Luckily there are tech companies working to keep our data safe.

Why should we be wary of quantum computers?

At the moment, our communications and our private data is kept safe using encryption methods such as public key infrastructure. However, quantum computers are significantly more powerful than the traditional computers we use today, and each new iteration has more computing power. They’ll soon be capable of breaking through even the most advanced kinds of encryption in seconds, meaning that a cyber criminal armed with a quantum computer would be able to access any network they set their heart on. At the moment, these kinds of quantum computers don’t exist, but once they do, we probably won’t know about them until it’s too late.

What can be done to keep our data safe?

It’s because of this that people around the world are investing time and money in creating new, more secure kinds of encryption, and quantum encryption looks as though it could be our best hope. One such company working on a solution is Arqit Quantum, a British start-up founded in 2017. Arqit’s answer is QuantumCloud, a cutting-edge technology that creates encryption keys which can be beamed down to Earth using satellites, and are set to be launched into space by the company’s partner, Virgin Orbit. Users can rely on these keys to keep their messages or calls safe from quantum computers, and the quantum properties of this technology mean that it can’t be hacked, either. Anyone who attempts to listen in, or break in and access the message, would leave it irreversibly altered.

This all sounds great, but in recent months, Arqit has been forced to go into damage control mode. An article published by the American publication The Wall Street Journal made baseless claims about how Arqit was run as a business, as well as how its technology didn’t even work. There’s no point going into detail about these claims - other newspapers such as The Telegraph published similar articles, but retracted them once they realised there was no truth to the accusations. That didn’t stop people from accepting The Wall Street Journal’s assertions as gospel, and Arqit’s share price dropped in the days afterwards.

Is Arqit’s technology legitimate?

If you have any doubts about whether Arqit’s QuantumCloud actually works, then keep reading. On the 11th of May 2022, Arqit announced the completion of an independent report of their technology, which had been undertaken by the University of Surrey. That university wasn’t just chosen at random - it’s been chosen by the UK’s NCSC (the National Cyber Security Centre) as an Academic Centre for Excellence in Cyber Security Research (or ACE-CSR).

One of the Wall Street Journal’s main criticisms of Arqit was about the effectiveness of QKD, or quantum key distribution, but that’s not even a technology that Arqit uses. In fact, QuantumCloud is a completely different method of encryption, and the University of Surrey’s report found that it was extremely effective. In fact, according to Professor Steve Schneider, the Director of the Surrey Centre for Cyber Security, Arqit’s technology was excellent. He even stated that “The technology represents a significant advance in secure communications.” The report was conducted by PA Consulting, who validated all of the findings, and agreed that the keys created by QuantumCloud were in fact computationally secure.

Clearly Arqit must be doing something right, despite all the attacks from naysayers. After examining their work, their quantum encryption technology looks like it could be our best hope for a post-quantum future. The company seems to be on the up, and could end up transforming the cyber security sector.