Scientists are yet to fully understand why two particles can find their attributes “entangled”, but this Australian engineer is using the principle for advanced new cybersecurity applications.
Albert Einstein called it “spooky”. In 1935, when he and his colleagues were exploring the pretzel logic of quantum physics, they found themselves engaged in baffling conjecture that suggested two particles of the same origin would continue to share the same quantum state, even after they had moved far apart in time and space. A change in one would be observed as a change in the other.
Three decades later, John Stewart Bell would develop a method to test this “quantum entanglement,” eventually confirming it as a real phenomenon.
Now, engineers at a University of New South Wales startup are using the effect in a new cybersecurity protocol that promises to protect critical infrastructure from attack.
UNSW senior lecturer Dr Jesse Laeuchli is the founder of Quantum Lock, a company whose devices draw on a “physics-based guarantee” to provide rigorous security protocols in the face of advanced and persistent threats.
“We’re using quantum mechanics to securely communicate information in a way that you can’t do with classical communications,” Laeuchli said.
Eternal vigilance
Quantum Lock’s technology doesn’t defend devices from attack, but instead continuously monitors for an attack, using the principle of quantum entanglement to prove definitively whether a device had been compromised or not.
Being able to verify an attack allows a security operation centre to shut it down at the initial stage, preventing attackers from reaching further into a network where they can do the most damage.
Although physicists struggle to fully explain why quantum entanglement works, Laeuchli’s technology uses the principle to produce a what he calls a “quantum teleporter,” which can transmit a quantum state through a channel that can’t be intercepted or spoofed.
“A quantum teleporter is something where if you share these entangled particles, you can get a quantum state instantly from one spot to another,” Laeuchli said.
“So an adversary can’t interact with that communication channel, and if you’ve got this quantum teleporter, you can’t give it away. We know who we’re talking to, and we’ve got this communication channel that an attacker can’t interact with.
“If you have those two things, you can build really powerful security protocols.”
Because the laws of physics prevent an attacker from interfering with the entangled, particles – Quantum Lock uses photons – the trustworthiness of embedded devices can be confirming immediately.
“People don’t know how entanglement works, but they do know that you can engineer it, you can make it happen,” Laeuchli said.
“It’s a fascinating concept and you can use it to do all kinds of things. People use it to do computation, people use it to do cryptography, and now we’re using it to do this new approach of detecting when things are attacked.”
National security
Applications for the technology include securing critical infrastructure, such as satellites or power networks from being sabotaged by hostile states and other highly organised, malicious actors.
“We’ve seen recently that nation states are able to compromise these embedded devices and cause tremendous economic and strategic harm,” Laeuchli said.
“The computers running power stations, data centres, drones and satellites are all vulnerable. There’s no way to be sure that those devices haven’t been hacked.”
Quantum Lock has secured $110,000 in pre-seed initial funding from the Australian Government’s Quantum Australia and Defence Trailblazer programs and has seen interest from major corporations including Amazon Web Services and JP Morgan. Trials of the technology in the United States are planned for later this year.
“I think this has the potential to be a success story for Australia,” Laeuchli said.
“I’ve always believed in the technology, but there’s a gap from being a good technology to being a good business, and that was the point where I thought, ‘oh, this could succeed as a business and not just as a research thing’.”
A member of the UNSW Institute for Cyber Security, Laeuchli’s career has included roles in the US’s Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, positioning him to bring together insight into strategic security interests with a sophisticated knowledge of particle physics.
“A lot of people who understand quantum don’t understand cyber security, and a lot of people who understand cyber security don’t understand quantum,” he said.
Explore Engineers Australia’s submission to the 2023–2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy
