World Economic Forum Cites QuSecure's Multi-Orbit Link in Its Quantum Roadmap for ICT Leaders

The World Economic Forum, with Accenture, has published a strategic roadmap for information and communication technology leaders covering three quantum fronts: computing, sensing, and communications and security. QuSecure’s co-founder and chief executive is among the paper’s listed contributors, and the paper reaches for QuSecure’s work at the point where it argues about what can actually be deployed.

Where the report cites QuSecure

Weighing how quantum-safe approaches scale, the authors set quantum key distribution against post-quantum cryptography. QKD, they note, carries high costs and distance limitations, while PQC does not. Their example of what that difference makes possible is the multi-orbit satellite data link QuSecure built with Accenture, which the report describes as a hybrid approach that is easier to deploy, even in space, and that features crypto-agility.

The argument belongs to the report rather than to us, which is what makes it worth reading. Deployability is the whole practical question for a network operator, and a satellite link is the hardest case anyone can point at.

Key points of the white paper include:

• Quantum communications and security are treated as urgent priorities, on the grounds that quantum computing threatens the cryptographic methods in use today.
• NIST, supported by an international consortium of 25 countries, has standardized a first round of post-quantum cryptography algorithms, and the US government is mandating migration to them.
• QKD may not yet be ready for widespread use in some geolocations, including the US, on security grounds, while operators in other regions test and deploy both QKD and PQC.
• Quantum-safe migration should start as early as possible, to mitigate attackers collecting encrypted data now with the intention of decrypting it once quantum computers mature.
• Five strategic pillars are set out for regulators and ICT innovators: R&D, infrastructure and technology, public-private partnerships, start-ups and private ventures, and education and workforce.

The paper’s own conclusion is that early adoption of quantum-safe measures is what separates the organizations that will absorb the transition from those that will be overtaken by it.