Arqit Quantum Inc., a leader in quantum-safe encryption was honoured to receive two Glomo awards at Mobile World Congress on February 28, 2024. The company took home the top honour in the CTO Choice: Outstanding Mobile Technology Award category, which was voted on by CTO’s across the industry, including those from the world’s major mobile phone companies, along with the award for Best Mobile Security Solution.

David Williams Arqit Founder said, “Solving one of the biggest technology problems of the era and changing the way that significant parts of the World does encryption is a very large challenge. Arqit software is unique in doing this through symmetric key agreement and rotating authentication at end points in a manner which is not only quantum safe but also compliant with NSA standards. We are delighted that the telecoms industry is moving at pace to address this problem and that Arqit’s unique solution is recognised.”

Notes to Editors

The UK Government acknowledges the quantum threat:

• UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC): “A quantum computer will allow the attacker to read information that has been encrypted in the past, and forge information in the future”.

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“Store-now, decrypt-later” is a known threat and concerning for data with a long-time value:

• UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC): “The threat to key agreement is that an adversary collecting encrypted data today would be able to decrypt it in future, should they have access to a CRQC [Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computer]”.
• US Congress: “The rapid progress of quantum computing suggests the potential for adversaries of the United States to steal sensitive encrypted data today using classical computers and wait until sufficiently powerful quantum systems are available to decrypt it”.

Symmetric cryptography is a solution that can be implemented right now and can be used for both encryption and key exchange:

• UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC): “In contrast with PKC [public-key cryptography], the security of symmetric cryptography is not significantly impacted by quantum computers, and existing symmetric algorithms with at least 128-bit keys (such as AES) can continue to be used”.
• US National Security Agency (NSA): “NSA considers using pre-shared symmetric keys in a standards-compliant fashion a better near-term post-quantum solution than implementing experimental post-quantum asymmetric algorithms”.

The US Government has already directed their agencies to implement symmetric-key protections for National Security Systems (NSS):

• The White House: “By December 31, 2023, agencies maintaining NSS shall implement symmetric-key protections (e.g., High Assurance Internet Protocol Encryptor (HAIPE) exclusion keys or VPN symmetric key solutions) to provide additional protection for quantum-vulnerable key exchanges”.

SOURCE: GlobeNewswire