Posts Tagged ‘QuantumComputing’
[DefCon32] Fireside Chat – The Dark Tangent and DNSA Anne Neuberger
Jeff Moss, known as The Dark Tangent, founder of DEF CON, engages in a dynamic fireside chat with Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology. Their conversation at DEF CON 32 explores pressing cybersecurity issues, including artificial intelligence and quantum computing, from the White House’s perspective. Jeff and Anne discuss how the hacker community can influence policy, fostering collaboration to enhance global digital resilience.
Navigating Emerging Technologies
Anne opens by outlining her role in shaping the Biden Administration’s cybersecurity policies, emphasizing the transformative potential of AI and quantum computing. She highlights the need for resilient digital systems, given their critical role in hospitals and power grids. Jeff complements this by noting DEF CON’s history of hosting government speakers, underscoring the importance of dialogue between hackers and policymakers.
Strengthening Global Cooperation
The discussion shifts to international cybersecurity cooperation, with Anne detailing efforts to align allies against digital threats. She explains how coordinated responses can de-escalate conflicts, reducing the risk of cyberattacks by nation-states or criminals. Jeff probes the practicalities of these partnerships, highlighting the hacker community’s role in testing and refining these strategies.
Engaging the Hacker Community
Anne emphasizes the DEF CON community’s unique ability to identify vulnerabilities and propose innovative solutions. She encourages hackers to engage with government initiatives, leveraging tools like generative AI to patch vulnerabilities swiftly. Jeff reinforces this, noting that DEF CON’s open forum allows for candid feedback, shaping policies that reflect real-world challenges.
Building a Resilient Future
Concluding, Anne reflects on her privilege to serve in government, driven by a commitment to freedom and security. She invites hackers to collaborate on building robust digital systems, ensuring safety for critical infrastructure worldwide. Jeff echoes this call, envisioning DEF CON as a catalyst for policy improvements, with Anne’s return next year symbolizing ongoing partnership.
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[DefCon32] If Existing Cyber Vulns Magically Disappeared, What Next
Dr. Stefanie Tompkins, Director of DARPA, joined by Dr. Renee Wegrzyn, inaugural Director of ARPA-H, explores a hypothetical scenario where all cyber vulnerabilities vanish overnight. Their session at DEF CON 32, moderated interactively, delves into the hacker community’s contributions to cybersecurity and the next frontier of challenges, from supply chain vulnerabilities to quantum computing. Stefanie and Renee emphasize the synergy between DARPA, ARPA-H, and the DEF CON community in shaping a secure digital future.
The Hacker Community’s Legacy
Stefanie opens by celebrating the DEF CON community’s role in challenging the status quo, citing DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge and Cyber Fast Track as catalysts for vulnerability detection advancements. She highlights how diverse perspectives have driven innovations like the ARPANET, the precursor to the internet. Stefanie underscores the community’s potential to address future threats, encouraging active collaboration with agencies like DARPA.
Envisioning a Vulnerability-Free World
Renee explores the implications of a world without cyber vulnerabilities, questioning what new challenges would emerge. She discusses ARPA-H’s Apex program, which leverages generative AI to create novel antigen sequences for unaddressed viruses, illustrating how hacker ingenuity could pivot to proactive solutions. Renee emphasizes the need to secure health tech ecosystems, particularly hospitals, against cyberattacks.
Tackling Supply Chain and Quantum Challenges
Stefanie, a geologist by training, shares her focus on supply chain vulnerabilities, given their critical role in global technology ecosystems. She also addresses quantum computing’s uncertain future, noting DARPA’s efforts to determine its transformative potential versus obsolescence. Stefanie’s insights highlight the need for rigorous questioning to guide technological development, inviting hackers to contribute ideas.
Fostering Collaborative Innovation
Concluding, Renee and Stefanie call for continued partnership with the DEF CON community to solve complex problems. They encourage attendees to share ideas with DARPA and ARPA-H, emphasizing that transformative solutions arise from collective creativity. Their vision for a resilient digital and health infrastructure inspires hackers to shape the next era of cybersecurity innovation.
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[GoogleIO2024] Quantum Computing: Facts, Fiction and the Future
Quantum computing stands at the forefront of technological advancement, promising to unlock solutions to some of humanity’s most complex challenges. Charina Chou and Erik Lucero, representing Google Quantum AI, provided a structured exploration divided into facts, fiction, and future prospects. Their insights draw from ongoing research, emphasizing the quantum mechanical principles that govern nature and how they can be harnessed for computational power. By blending scientific rigor with accessible explanations, they aim to demystify this field, encouraging broader participation from developers and innovators alike.
Fundamental Principles of Quantum Mechanics and Computing
At its core, quantum computing leverages the inherent properties of quantum mechanics, which permeate everyday natural phenomena. For instance, fluorescence, photosynthesis, and even the way birds navigate using Earth’s magnetic field all rely on quantum effects. Charina and Erik highlighted superposition, where particles exist in multiple states simultaneously, and entanglement, where particles share information instantaneously regardless of distance. These concepts enable quantum systems to process information in ways classical computers cannot.
Google Quantum AI’s laboratory embodies this inspiration, adorned with art that celebrates nature’s quantum beauty. Erik described the lab as a space where creativity and science intersect, fostering an environment that propels exploration. The motivation to build quantum computers stems from the limitations of classical systems in simulating natural processes accurately. Nobel laureate Richard Feynman articulated this need, stating that to simulate nature effectively, computations must be quantum mechanical.
The team’s thesis posits quantum computers as tools for exponential speedups in specific domains. Quantum simulation, for example, could revolutionize materials science and biology by modeling molecules and materials with unprecedented precision. This is particularly relevant for drug discovery, where understanding molecular interactions at a quantum level could accelerate the development of treatments for diseases like cancer. Erik shared a personal anecdote about a friend’s battle with cancer, underscoring the human stakes involved. Similarly, quantum machine learning promises efficiency in processing quantum data from sensors, potentially requiring exponentially less data than classical methods.
Enriching this, Google’s roadmap includes milestones like demonstrating quantum supremacy in 2019 with the Sycamore processor, which performed a task in 200 seconds that would take classical supercomputers 10,000 years. This achievement, detailed in Nature, validated the potential for quantum systems to outperform classical ones in targeted computations.
Dispelling Myths and Clarifying Realities
Amidst the hype, numerous misconceptions surround quantum computing. Fiction often depicts quantum computers as immediate threats to global encryption or universal problem-solvers. In truth, while they could factor large numbers efficiently—potentially breaking RSA encryption—this requires error-corrected systems not yet realized. Current quantum computers, like Google’s, operate with noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices, limited in scope.
Charina addressed the myth of quantum computers replacing classical ones, clarifying they excel in niche areas like optimization and simulation, not general-purpose tasks. For instance, they won’t speed up video games or everyday computations but could optimize logistics or financial modeling. Erik debunked the idea of instantaneous computations, noting quantum algorithms like Shor’s for factoring provide polynomial speedups, not infinite ones.
A key milestone was Google’s 2023 demonstration of quantum error correction, published in Nature, where increasing qubits reduced overall error rates—a counterintuitive breakthrough. This “below threshold” achievement, using the Willow chip as of 2024, marks progress toward scalable systems. The chip’s ability to perform calculations beyond classical limits in septillion years faster exemplifies this leap.
Fiction also includes overestimations of current capabilities; quantum computers aren’t yet “useful” for real-world applications but are approaching milestones where they could simulate unattainable chemical reactions or design efficient batteries.
Prospects and Collaborative Pathways Ahead
Looking forward, Google Quantum AI envisions applications in fusion energy, fertilizer production, and beyond. The XPRIZE, sponsored with google.org, offers $5 million to incentivize quantum solutions for global issues, open for submissions to mobilize diverse ideas.
Erik emphasized the need for a global workforce, inviting scientists, engineers, artists, and developers to contribute. The roadmap targets a million-qubit system by milestone six, enabling practical utility. Early processors will aid along the way, with ongoing collaborations fostering innovation.
Recent advancements, like the Willow chip’s error reduction, as reported in Nature 2024, position quantum computing for breakthroughs in medicine and energy. Feynman’s quote on the “wonderful problem” encapsulates the challenge and excitement, inviting collective effort to extend human potential.
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[DevoxxUS2017] New Computer Architectures: Explore Quantum Computers & SyNAPSE Neuromorphic Chips by Peter Waggett
At DevoxxUS2017, Dr. Peter Waggett, Director of IBM’s Emerging Technology group at the Hursley Laboratory, delivered a thought-provoking session on next-generation computer architectures, focusing on quantum computers and IBM’s TrueNorth neuromorphic chip. With a background in radio astronomy and extensive research in cognitive computing, Peter explored how these technologies address the growing demand for processing power in a smarter, interconnected world. This post delves into the core themes of Peter’s presentation, highlighting the potential of these innovative architectures.
Quantum Computing: A New Frontier
Peter Waggett introduced quantum computing, explaining its potential to solve complex problems beyond the reach of classical systems. He described how quantum computers manipulate atomic spins using MRI-like systems, leveraging quantum entanglement and superposition. Drawing from his work at IBM, Peter highlighted ongoing research to make quantum computing accessible, emphasizing its role in advancing fields like cryptography and material science, despite challenges like helium shortages impacting hardware.
TrueNorth: Brain-Inspired Computing
Delving into neuromorphic computing, Peter showcased IBM’s TrueNorth chip, a brain-inspired architecture with 1 million neurons and 256 synapses, consuming just 73mW. Unlike traditional processors, TrueNorth challenges conventions like exact data representation and synchronicity, enabling low-power sensory perception for IoT and mobile applications. Peter’s examples illustrated TrueNorth’s scalability, positioning it as a cornerstone of IBM’s cognitive hardware ecosystem for transformative applications.
Addressing Scalability and Efficiency
Peter discussed the scalability of new architectures, comparing TrueNorth’s energy efficiency to traditional compute fabrics. He highlighted how neuromorphic chips optimize for error tolerance and energy-frequency trade-offs, ideal for IoT’s sensory demands. His insights, grounded in IBM’s client-focused projects, underscored the need for innovative designs to meet the computational needs of a connected planet, from smart cities to autonomous devices.
Building a Developer Community
Concluding, Peter emphasized the importance of fostering a developer community to advance these technologies. He encouraged collaboration through IBM’s research initiatives, noting the need for skilled engineers to tackle challenges like helium scarcity and system design. Peter’s vision for accessible platforms, inspired by his radio astronomy background, invited developers to explore quantum and neuromorphic computing, driving innovation in cognitive systems.
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[DotSecurity2017] Post-Quantum Cryptography
In the shadowed corridors of computational evolution, where qubits dance on the precipice of unraveling classical safeguards, the specter of quantum supremacy looms as both marvel and menace. Tanja Lange, a pioneering cryptographer and chair of the Coding Theory and Cryptology group at Eindhoven University of Technology, confronted this conundrum at dotSecurity 2017, elucidating the imperative for encryption resilient to tomorrow’s quantum tempests. With a career illuminating the interstices of mathematics and machine security, Tanja dissected the vulnerabilities plaguing contemporary ciphers—RSA’s reliance on factorization’s fortress, ECC’s elliptic enigmas—while heralding lattice-based bastions and code-theoretic countermeasures as beacons of post-quantum fortitude. This discourse transcends abstraction; it charts a course for safeguarding secrets sown today from harvests reaped by adversaries armed with tomorrow’s arithmetic.
Tanja’s treatise commenced with cryptography’s ubiquity: the browser’s lock icon, a talisman of TLS’s aegis, enshrines RSA or Diffie-Hellman duos, their potency predicated on problems polynomials presume intractable. Yet, Shor’s quantum sleight—factoring in factorial fractions, discrete logs dispatched—threatens this tranquility. Grover’s oracle amplifies: symmetric keys halved in fortitude, AES-256’s bulwark bruised to 128-bit equivalence. Retroactive peril compounds: “harvest now, decrypt later,” state actors stockpiling streams for quantum quelling. Tanja tallied timelines: Google’s Sycamore’s supremacy in 2019, IBM’s 2023 roadmap to 1,000+ qubits—2025’s horizon harbors harbingers capable of cracking 2048-bit RSA in hours.
Post-quantum’s pantheon pivots on presumptions quantum-proof: lattices’ learning with errors (LWE), multivariate quadratics’ mazes, hash’s hierarchies. Tanja traversed LWE’s labyrinth: vectors veiled in noise, decoding’s dichotomy—structured sparsity succumbing sans trapdoors, randomness repelling revelation. McEliece’s mantle, code-based cryptography’s cornerstone since 1978, endures: Goppa codes’ generator matrices, encryption as error-infused syndromes—decryption’s discernment demands secret scaffolds. Tanja touted standardization’s sprint: NIST’s 2016 clarion, 2022’s Kyber crystallization (lattice largesse), Dilithium’s digital signatures—round three’s rites refining resilience.
Challenges cascade: key sizes’ kilobyte burdens (Kyber’s 1KB public, McEliece’s megabyte monoliths), signatures’ sprawl—yet optimizations orbit: hybrid harbingers blending classical clutches with quantum cautions. Tanja tempered trepidation: current crypto’s continuum, migration’s mosaic—signal spikes, certificate cascades. Her horizon: PQC’s proliferation, from Chrome’s 2024 infusions to IETF’s interoperability—ensuring enclaves eternal against entanglement’s edge.
Quantum’s Quandary and Classical Cracks
Tanja traced threats: Shor’s sieve shattering RSA’s ramparts, Grover’s grope gnawing symmetric sinews—harvest’s haunt, 2025’s qubit quorum. ECC’s edifice echoes: elliptic’s enigmas eclipsed, Diffie-Hellman’s duels dissolved.
Lattice Locks and Code Crypts
LWE’s veil: noise’s nebula, trapdoors’ trove—McEliece’s matrices, Goppa’s girth. NIST’s novelties: Kyber’s kernels, Dilithium’s declarations—hybrids’ harmony, keys’ curtailment.
Migration’s Mandate and Horizons
Tanja’s timeline: signal’s surge, certs’ cascade—Chrome’s convergence, IETF’s accord. PQC’s promise: enclaves enduring, entanglement evaded.