In today’s interconnected world, the need for secure digital infrastructure has never been more critical, especially in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, where rapid digitalisation is transforming economies and societies.
Digitalisation introduces new vulnerabilities, underscoring the need for enhanced security measures. The expanding digital landscape, fuelled by cloud adoption and location-agnostic initiatives, presents a double-edged sword. While these advancements foster agility and accessibility, they also result in a vast and dispersed attack surface.
Quantum computing holds immense potential for revolutionising fields such as medicine, materials science, and AI, but it also presents a significant challenge to current cybersecurity protocols. The emergence of cryptographically relevant quantum computers (CRQCs), often referred to as “Q-day,” poses a serious threat, as they have the potential to compromise the encryption methods that currently safeguard our critical infrastructure.
Quantum-safe networks (QSNs) offer a multi-layered defence approach, strengthening security and trust for critical infrastructure operators across sectors such as government, defence, finance, healthcare, and power utilities. This multi-layered approach adds complementary network-layer cryptographic security to application-layer security, providing cryptographic resilience.
This layered strategy is designed to reduce the risk of compromise by introducing multiple barriers for threat actors. Each layer serves as an additional obstacle, intended to make it more challenging to breach the network and access sensitive data. The approach aims to enhance data security and maintain trust, even as threats evolve.
Fortify your network security today
Many sceptics believe that quantum threats are a distant concern. However, I see the “harvest now, decrypt later” (HNDL) tactic employed by some threat actors as highlighting a significant vulnerability. These actors are currently collecting encrypted data, confident they’ll decrypt it once CRQC technology becomes available.
The time to act on quantum-safe networks (QSNs) is now. While the threat of Q-day may seem distant, transitioning to quantum-safe cryptography and implementing a defence-in-depth strategy takes time and planning. By starting now, organisations can better manage their risk profile, build cryptographic resilience, and safeguard sensitive information.
IBM, for example, has pointed to the urgent need to address the disruptive potential of quantum technology. Indeed, quantum computers, capable of performing complex calculations in parallel, could render current encryption methods obsolete by the end of the decade. This scenario has been described as a potential “cybersecurity Armageddon” for governments and businesses worldwide, underscoring the unprecedented risk management challenge we face in migrating to quantum-safe cryptography. This isn’t just about cybersecurity; it represents one of the most significant cryptographic transitions in modern history, a critical step towards building resilience in the face of an evolving threat landscape.
To mitigate these threats, QSNs offer protection against CRQCs by using quantum-safe cryptographic keys and key distribution, combined with quantum-safe network encryption and other evolving technologies. This approach aims to ensure:
- Protection of sensitive data from unauthorised access.
- Safeguarding data from theft or corruption during transmission.
- Maintaining the integrity of communications by ensuring that parties cannot deny sending or receiving a message.
- Protecting access to critical infrastructure systems.
- Allowing operators to value add and upsell quantum-safe connectivity.
Enterprises and key players in the telecommunications, banking, and financial institution sectors must take proactive measures now. Planning and deploying quantum-safe cryptography-based solutions within a defence-in-depth approach will help provide secure and trusted connectivity, enabling a quantum-safe global economy and society.
Steps to a quantum safe future
Organisations across various markets face the challenge of determining the steps to take towards a quantum-safe future.
Mission-critical verticals and segments are driven by the need to protect data due to its operational value, sensitivity, and longevity. These sectors also face increasing standards and regulatory requirements as policymakers react to the potential impact of quantum computing.
Telecom service providers, as key players in our interconnected world, play a crucial role in ensuring secure and trusted connectivity by leveraging QSN. This approach enhances overall network resilience and aims to provide customers with a secure communication infrastructure. In the APAC region, for instance, Singapore was the first to announce Southeast Asia’s quantum-safe network infrastructure.
QSN solutions have been deployed globally in mission-critical and telecom service provider markets.
- Delivering quantum-safe connectivity
Ensuring quantum-safe connectivity demands a comprehensive strategy. For example, a crypto-resilient, defence-in-depth approach involves multi-layered network cryptography (OTNsec, MACsec, ANYsec, IPsec), adaptable to business and use case needs.
This strategy is designed to provide the confidence to scale quantum-safe network deployment and evolve with the quantum landscape. While not all layers necessitate cryptography, a comprehensive approach involves applying security measures both complementarily and cumulatively across one or multiple layers (application, network connectivity, and potentially future quantum-safe application layers). This layered approach tailors security to specific risk mitigation requirements and the network’s operational model.
Foundational to this strategy are quantum-safe cryptographic keys, grounded in both mathematics and physics, with appropriate key distribution. Enhancing this foundation, AES256 network encryption provides multi-layers of IP and optical cryptography, complementing application-level cryptography for secure quantum-safe connectivity. Research and innovation in specific technological domains continue to shape the future of quantum-safe network solutions.
- The power of collaboration
Collaboration is key: partnerships with quantum key distribution (QKD) experts and public key infrastructure with post-quantum cryptography (PKI-PQC) specialists are crucial.
These alliances form the bedrock of the QSN strategy, bringing together diverse entities in the pursuit of a resilient, future-proof secure communication infrastructure to protect customers’ networks.
Taking the quantum leap
Relying on a single encryption layer for the application layer is no longer enough. We need a crypto-resilient, multi-layer, adaptable, defence-in-depth approach that provides protection against the continued evolution of quantum computing-related threats.
Implementing QSN, fortified with quantum-resistant cryptographic techniques, requires new strategies and technologies. This multifaceted solution spans various network infrastructure layers. It aims to support adaptable and scalable digital communication across the application to networking layers, adjusting as advances in quantum-safe cryptography for the application layer emerge.
To preserve the trust and security of our digital communications infrastructures, we must assure data integrity, security, and privacy in the quantum era. Acting now to manage the risk to our global digital economies and societies is crucial, and this begins with planning and commencing the deployment of QSN solutions today. This path forward is vital across all mission-critical markets. Telecom service providers will also play a role by providing quantum-safe private or managed infrastructure to these mission-critical markets, which could become the foundation for future quantum-safe monetisation opportunities.
