Quantum Computing Presents Immense Opportunities, But Risks Lurk 

Oxylabs CEO Julius Černiauskas believes that although cloud quantum computing (QC) presents significant opportunities for industry, the technology still has notable risks. In a recently published guest blog, Černiauskas said that quantum computing offers “groundbreaking possibilities” and noted that large tech firms such as Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and Google are making heavy investments in the technology. Specialized tech startups like PsiQuantum and Quantinuum are also making major inroads into the nascent computing and cloud computing segment and challenging established players. 

With experts predicting that the quantum computing market will generate more than $1 trillion in value for the global economy over the next decade, projections for the industry’s future and its impact on the global economy are quite positive. Even so, Černiauskas asked, can we be entirely sure that the benefits associated with quantum computing outweigh its potential dangers? While the technology has the capacity to revolutionize industries such as artificial intelligence, climate modeling, and drug discovery, it also presents major cybersecurity issues due to quantum computing’s potential encryption-breaking abilities. 

Although we are still several years from the development of quantum computers that can break modern encryption standards, the risk still needs to be addressed as soon as possible, Černiauskas said. With copious amounts of increasingly important data being digitized every day, cybersecurity has become a critical concern for the average individual, businesses, and governments. The advancements being made in quantum computing research are particularly troubling from a cybersecurity viewpoint as they could allow malicious players to get past “unbreakable” encryption algorithms. 

If quantum computers become mainstream, keeping proprietary and user data safe will become incredibly difficult. A KPMG survey found that 78% of American firms and 60% of their Canadian counterparts foresee functional quantum computers becoming mainstream in just 5 years. Furthermore, 73% and 60% of American and Canadian companies respectively believe that cybercriminals will soon start to leverage quantum computing in their efforts to crack current cybersecurity measures. 

Modern security protocols are largely reliant on mathematical problems that classical computers simply cannot solve in a reasonable amount of time. For instance, a conventional computer will take around 300 trillion years to solve RSA encryption protocols that use large prime numbers. However, a quantum computer of sufficient power could crack this encryption significantly faster using Shor’s algorithm. This algorithm was designed to ramp up the speed with which quantum computers factor large numbers. 

Exponentially more powerful encryption standards will be needed to beef up cybersecurity and protect private networks from quantum computing-aided infiltration. One key approach will be adopting crypto agility, which allows systems to quickly switch to stronger encryption standards as threats evolve, helping defend against harvest now, decrypt later (HNDL) attacks and future-proofing sensitive data. 

As entities like D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS) work to advance quantum computing, more effort needs to be invested by other stakeholders to address the challenges that could come from rendering the current computing systems obsolete or inadequate. 

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/QBTS 

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