Scientists find ways to secure quantum computing at home

• Scientists at Oxford University Physics use an approach dubbed “blind quantum computing”, which connects two totally separate quantum computing entities – potentially an individual at home or in an office accessing a cloud server – in a completely secure way.
• The results could ultimately lead to commercial development of devices to plug into laptops, to safeguard data when people are using quantum cloud computing services.
• Clients can access remote quantum computers to process confidential data with secret algorithms and even verify the results are correct, without revealing any useful information.

Even though several cloud-based providers like Google, Amazon and IBM offer some elements of quantum computing, safeguarding the privacy and security of customer data is still a concern and a challenge.

Delegating quantum computations to a server carries the same privacy and security concerns that bedevil classical cloud computing as users are currently unable to hide their work from the server or to independently verify their results in the regime where classical simulations become intractable.

However, scientists at Oxford University Physics have addressed this issue by using an approach dubbed “blind quantum computing”, which connects two totally separate quantum computing entities – potentially an individual at home or in an office accessing a cloud server – in a completely secure way. Importantly, their new methods could be scaled up to large quantum computations.

The research promises to unlock the transformative potential of cloud-based quantum computing and the full power of next-generation quantum computing could soon be harnessed by millions of individuals and companies.

“We have shown for the first time that quantum computing in the cloud can be accessed in a scalable, practical way which will also give people complete security and privacy of data, plus the ability to verify its authenticity,” Professor David Lucas, who co-heads the Oxford University Physics research team and is lead scientist at the UK Quantum Computing and Simulation Hub, led from Oxford University Physics, said.

Secret algorithms

Quantum computing is developing rapidly, paving the way for new applications which could transform services in many areas like healthcare and financial services. It works in a fundamentally different way to conventional computing and is potentially far more powerful.

However, it currently requires controlled conditions to remain stable and there are concerns around data authenticity and the effectiveness of current security and encryption systems.

By using blind quantum computing, study lead Dr Peter Drmota of Oxford University Physics, said that clients can access remote quantum computers to process confidential data with secret algorithms and even verify the results are correct, without revealing any useful information.

“Realising this concept is a big step forward in both quantum computing and keeping our information safe online.”

Unique combination

The researchers created a system comprising a fibre network link between a quantum computing server and a simple device detecting photons, or particles of light, at an independent computer remotely accessing its cloud services. This allows so-called blind quantum computing over a network.

Every computation incurs a correction which must be applied to all that follow and needs real-time information to comply with the algorithm. The researchers used a unique combination of quantum memory and photons to achieve this.

“Never in history has the issues surrounding privacy of data and code been more urgently debated than in the present era of cloud computing and artificial intelligence,” Lucas said.

“As quantum computers become more capable, people will seek to use them with complete security and privacy over networks, and our new results mark a step change in capability in this respect.”

The results could ultimately lead to commercial development of devices to plug into laptops, to safeguard data when people are using quantum cloud computing services.