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Had me interested until: "Non-state firms are helping the armed forces to develop quantum technologies that will boost their ability to make use of artificial

Had me interested until: "Non-state firms are helping the armed forces to develop quantum technologies that will boost their ability to make use of artificial intelligence and big data, as well as to develop unhackable communications networks." Oh boy is that buzz word central. I'm still convinced we're decades away from using quantum computing for much more than finding prime numbers. Everything I've read says we're just barely scratching the surface how to use this stuff. We're a long way off before Quantum AI uses Big Data to design military planes.

williamscales 9y ago
It is buzz-word central for sure. However, there is a nugget of truth in there: China is currently winning handily in the quantum teleportation race. They have been setting all kinds of records for teleporting photons to satellites. Quantum encryption is different from general purpose quantum computing. It relies on teleporting photons to communicate and it is unhackable—if someone tries to eavesdrop on a quantum encrypted communication, then the people communicating can immediately tell that this has happened. So on this one China really does seem to be ahead and the applications are not so fantastical.
- drb91 9y ago
  I thought quantum encryption was about secure key distribution for traditional sigint, not anything about a new encryption mechanism or medium for communicating an encrypted payload or an ability to detect interception. Do you have any more information?
  - outworlder 9y ago
    You need the quantum state and a conventional communication channel. Your 'key' is basically the quantum state. So you can consider it a new encryption mechanism. Interception detection is for someone messing with the quantum state (in other words, trying to use it). Both parties will know that happened. It is not for the conventional channel.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - drb91 9y ago
      You can’t consider it a new form of encryption if you’re just stuffing a key distributed with entanglement into AES and sending the encrypted result over tcp. The detection only holds for key distribution, which is a different problem than encryption (to my understanding). As i understand it, the main novelty here is that china has demonstrated recent ability to teleport particles a long ways away. This is only related to encryption in the slimmest chain of buzzwords.
- equalunique 9y ago
  >It relies on teleporting photons to communicate and it is unhackable—if someone tries to eavesdrop on a quantum encrypted communication, then the people communicating can immediately tell that this has happened. As mathematics and physics PhD Vladimir Dergachev explained to me, yes, this is what experts purport about quantum encryption.
nopinsight 9y ago
I believe one of things that passage refers to is quantum communications they recently claimed to have developed, which would be first in the world: https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/608857/china-reportedly-has-a-secure-quantum-communication-network/ https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/608857/china-r... https://www.insidescience.org/news/china-leader-quantum-communications https://www.insidescience.org/news/china-leader-quantum-comm...
tritium 9y ago
The way I see it, without getting into the prevailing connotations of "hacking" versus "cracking," quantum computing only strengthens wire security (data in motion), by preventing interception, since observation results in tamper evidence. Meaning that the new level of "quantum" security relies heavily on dedicated isolation between the transmitter and the receiver. This part only reveals that a copy of the enciphered message may have been captured by someone eavesdropping on the signal. It doesn't mean an enemy couldn't simply deny service by knocking out the satellite, or try to capture information via a side channel by sneaking into a peripheral system's firmware, but it means when bouncing a "beam" off a satellite, the signal might enjoy totally private transmission, end-to-end, or show that someone noticed the message, and may try to decode it, indicating compromised information and a possible loss of surprise or hazard of enemy awareness. As for unbreakable codes (data at rest), I'm pretty sure most military protocols lean heavily on one-time pads. I'd very honestly guess that prime number ciphers and the like are, well, probably secretly flimsy, and intended for civilian consumers to chase their tails over, while celebrity security bros widely endorse them as a means of cashing in on smart phone apps or book deals. A lot of the quantum secrecy technology is buzz-wordified as "teleportation entanglement space foam time travel" or whatever, by journalists, but here's an old article I was able to quickly Google: https://qz.com/760804/chinas-new-quantum-satellite-will-try-to-teleport-data-outside-the-bounds-of-space-and-time-and-create-an-unbreakable-code/ https://qz.com/760804/chinas-new-quantum-satellite-will-try-...
kneel 9y ago
This reads much like Reagan's "star wars". Hard to believe this made it into the economist.
kl4m 9y ago
QKD Satellites are a real technology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Experiments_at_Space_Scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Experiments_at_Space_S...

williamscales 9y ago

It is buzz-word central for sure. However, there is a nugget of truth in there: China is currently winning handily in the quantum teleportation race. They have been setting all kinds of records for teleporting photons to satellites. Quantum encryption is different from general purpose quantum computing. It relies on teleporting photons to communicate and it is unhackable—if someone tries to eavesdrop on a quantum encrypted communication, then the people communicating can immediately tell that this has happened. So on this one China really does seem to be ahead and the applications are not so fantastical.

drb91 9y ago
I thought quantum encryption was about secure key distribution for traditional sigint, not anything about a new encryption mechanism or medium for communicating an encrypted payload or an ability to detect interception. Do you have any more information?
- outworlder 9y ago
  You need the quantum state and a conventional communication channel. Your 'key' is basically the quantum state. So you can consider it a new encryption mechanism. Interception detection is for someone messing with the quantum state (in other words, trying to use it). Both parties will know that happened. It is not for the conventional channel.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - drb91 9y ago
    You can’t consider it a new form of encryption if you’re just stuffing a key distributed with entanglement into AES and sending the encrypted result over tcp. The detection only holds for key distribution, which is a different problem than encryption (to my understanding). As i understand it, the main novelty here is that china has demonstrated recent ability to teleport particles a long ways away. This is only related to encryption in the slimmest chain of buzzwords.
equalunique 9y ago
>It relies on teleporting photons to communicate and it is unhackable—if someone tries to eavesdrop on a quantum encrypted communication, then the people communicating can immediately tell that this has happened. As mathematics and physics PhD Vladimir Dergachev explained to me, yes, this is what experts purport about quantum encryption.

nopinsight 9y ago

I believe one of things that passage refers to is quantum communications they recently claimed to have developed, which would be first in the world: https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/608857/china-reportedly-has-a-secure-quantum-communication-network/ https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/608857/china-r... https://www.insidescience.org/news/china-leader-quantum-communications https://www.insidescience.org/news/china-leader-quantum-comm...

tritium 9y ago

The way I see it, without getting into the prevailing connotations of "hacking" versus "cracking," quantum computing only strengthens wire security (data in motion), by preventing interception, since observation results in tamper evidence. Meaning that the new level of "quantum" security relies heavily on dedicated isolation between the transmitter and the receiver. This part only reveals that a copy of the enciphered message may have been captured by someone eavesdropping on the signal. It doesn't mean an enemy couldn't simply deny service by knocking out the satellite, or try to capture information via a side channel by sneaking into a peripheral system's firmware, but it means when bouncing a "beam" off a satellite, the signal might enjoy totally private transmission, end-to-end, or show that someone noticed the message, and may try to decode it, indicating compromised information and a possible loss of surprise or hazard of enemy awareness. As for unbreakable codes (data at rest), I'm pretty sure most military protocols lean heavily on one-time pads. I'd very honestly guess that prime number ciphers and the like are, well, probably secretly flimsy, and intended for civilian consumers to chase their tails over, while celebrity security bros widely endorse them as a means of cashing in on smart phone apps or book deals. A lot of the quantum secrecy technology is buzz-wordified as "teleportation entanglement space foam time travel" or whatever, by journalists, but here's an old article I was able to quickly Google: https://qz.com/760804/chinas-new-quantum-satellite-will-try-to-teleport-data-outside-the-bounds-of-space-and-time-and-create-an-unbreakable-code/ https://qz.com/760804/chinas-new-quantum-satellite-will-try-...

kneel 9y ago

This reads much like Reagan's "star wars". Hard to believe this made it into the economist.

kl4m 9y ago

QKD Satellites are a real technology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Experiments_at_Space_Scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Experiments_at_Space_S...