How a S’porean startup plans to secure your data from a technological revolution with quantum devices

Quantum computing is one of those tech buzzwords that you see in the background of science articles every once in a while, and then you don’t hear about after.

But it has the potential to change basic foundations of the internet, as well as the world that has been built on those foundations.

Squareroot8 Technologies (SQRT8) is trying to ensure that when the day quantum computing is a common reality, those responsible for internet communications in Singapore and beyond have the tools they need to prevent catastrophe.

But first, what is SQRT8?

SQRT8 is a spinoff from the College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore’s world leading quantum research lab.

As a young team, it’s trying to build up capacity in Singapore, as well as introduce the concepts of a quantum resistant information environment to partners.

So, let's try to explain what’s going on:

To fully explain what they are doing would require either you or me to have a degree in physics or maths, which I don’t have, and if you did, you wouldn’t need me to explain this to you.

So assuming that neither you nor I have a degree in physics or maths, I’ll give two explanations - the “Too Long, Didn’t Read” version, and a very cut down version.

TL;DR

Let’s start with the basics.

The current way we secure our digital information will become vulnerable, if not totally obsolete in the future, and SQRT8 is a company that is building new ways to protect our data.

Also, satellites are involved.

A simplified explanation

Before you accuse me of trying to “dumb things down”, there’s an actual reason why I’m giving a simplified explanation.

SQRT8’s explanation of their work was comprehensive, and remarkably clear… but it was also 11 pages long and required a decent foundation to understand what they were going on about.

After scouring through all 11 pages, it was apparent that there were two clear elements to the topic - the problem and their solution.

So I’ll try to break the problem down as best as I can.

Picture this: you have a secret you need to tell someone. But you’re in a crowded room so anyone can eavesdrop.

You could switch to a different language to communicate with your partner, but this strategy fails if you happen to meet someone who speaks the same language as you.

You can counter this by swapping language for every secret, or perhaps for every word of the secret, but you run into the problem that your friend and yourself only speak a limited number of languages.

So you hand them a book with the phrases you’ll use to allow them to decipher your meaning later, a process known as key exchange.

Quantum computing is like an eavesdropper with an app that can automatically detect and translate any word in any language, essentially shredding your secret’s defences.

A quick note: I say ‘language’, but in reality, the final encrypted messages resemble unreadable gibberish more than actual words. In fact, it pretty much is gibberish, and if done right, only one other party will ever be able to decipher it.

What this comes down to is a pair of problems:

You need to generate a ‘language’ that only you and your friend can decipher, known as “key generation”

You need to pass on the ability to decipher that language to your friend, without anyone being able to figure it out, known as key exchange

Failure to do either will ultimately lead to failure to effectively secure information.

Failure in the former means your secrets can be read, and failure in the latter means that the secrets cannot be securely shared.

Great things in small packages

SQRT8’s technology targets both aspects of the problem, generating a unique language that is “immune” to the app, and also sharing instructions on how to read it to your partner.

SQRT8 is squeezing a Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) onto a microchip, which can sound kinda ‘meh’ but is actually super impressive.

It’s the same level of impressiveness as a device that plays an almost endless stream of music, video, and text in the palm of your hand: if you were born in the early internet age or before, a smartphone was an unimaginable achievement that has become trivial over the years.

The QRNG’s ability to generate provably random numbers means that even if somehow, a bad actor were able to gain full knowledge of the design of the QRNG, they would not be able to reverse engineer the encryption key language, thereby securing key generation.

But how will you be affected? That’s the thing: if SQRT8’s solution goes according to plan, you won’t notice at all. It’ll just work.

Key exchange

But key generation is just one aspect of the problem, the other is making sure your partner has the right ‘language’ translator and that no one else can get their hands on it, or key exchange.

If that translator can’t be safely handed over then your secret is useless, or worse, may be compromised.

There are two solutions, Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD).

Both are considered ‘safe’ for a post quantum world, but again, safety, even now, is a relative situation. Explaining how they work is… More difficult than what we’ve been through so far.

The simplest way to break down the difference is that PQC is more robust, and cheaper to implement, but less secure than QKD.

QKD however is limited by distance, and is more vulnerable to disruption, so even if bad actors can’t figure out how to read your secrets, they can more easily prevent you from sharing them.

Wait, you said satellites were involved?

Yes!

One of the problems SQRT8 is aiming to solve is encrypted communications to and from satellites.

Oftentimes, we forget the physical aspects of our often ethereal feeling communications.

But we encounter it on a semi-regular basis: when your phone signal gets cut off because you enter a tunnel, or there are too many buildings between you and the cell tower, for instance.

Solutions like satellite QKD, while being considered more secure, are thought to be less appropriate for tropical areas like Singapore, because of its sensitivity to noise and loss.

Err… It can be blocked by clouds, is the simplest way of putting it.

And in order to get around it, it’s partnering with Singaporean microsatellite company NuSpace.

SQRT8 and NuSpace created a satellite mounted module that is capable of pairing its QRNG with PQC, deploying it on NuSpace's NuLion micro satellite.

Through this, they aim to provide cost effective and secure satellite transmissions, especially when conventional land based communications is not possible, such as when communicating with offshore oil rigs, or from planes.

Notwithstanding the challenges of the communications itself, but to shrink a machine capable of handling such communications in a cost effective manner required a significant amount of collaboration with partners, which SQRT8 found in the form of NuSpace.

NuSpace was described by SQRT8 as one of the key players in the local space start-up scene, building small-form nanosatellites that provide connectivity for their clients.

NuSpace built and tested the module’s hardware that houses our components and runs SQRT8’s software so that our QRNG-PQC solution could thrive in the harshness of space.

Together, they were able to pack the entire QRNG-PQC solution on a single board, which allows its deployment on multi-mission nanosatellites like NuSpace’s NuLion.

Moving forward, SQRT8 and NuSpace will be working with their partners towards the commercialisation of this solution. You could follow the latest updates of SQRT8 on their LinkedIn page.

This sponsored article by Squareroot8 Technologies was enabled by the author watching the highly underrated movie ‘Sneakers’. No more secrets.

Top image via SQRT8