QuSecure launches end-to-end post-quantum cybersecurity solution

Post-quantum cryptography company QuSecure has announced its debut with the launch of a new post-quantum cybersecurity solution, QuProtect. The firm claimed that QuProtect is the industry’s first end-to-end quantum software-based platform designed to protect encrypted communications and data using a quantum secure channel.

The solution addresses present classical attacks and future quantum computing threats for commercial enterprises and government agencies, QuSecure added. The release comes as increasing numbers of solutions providers are coming to market with quantum-resilient offerings built to withstand quantum computing security risks that threaten traditional public key cryptography.

QuProtect incorporates zero trust, next-gen encryption, active monitoring, attack remediation

In a press release, QuSecure said QuProtect is designed around the entire data lifecycle to work anytime, anywhere and on any device with a focus on adoption, easy upgrade, and modern cyber-protection practices. Key to QuProtect’s post-quantum protections and quantum-resilient cryptographic keys is Quantum Random Number Generation (QRNG), which provides entropy throughout the entire network, the firm added.

“QuSecure’s mission is to provide enterprises and government organizations with a comprehensive cryptographic orchestration platform that addresses today’s conventional and future quantum threats,” commented QuSecure CEO Dave Krauthamer. “Our platform secures networks from current vulnerabilities using zero trust, next-generation encryption, active monitoring, and attack remediation – all cloud-delivered in software to existing devices, over existing infrastructure.”

Krauthamer added that feedback from QuSecure’s early customers indicates that a SaaS, end-to-end post-quantum cryptography approach is key for a practical post-quantum cybersecurity solution.

“Quantum technologies have the potential to represent a platform shift, and platform shifts don’t come around that often,” said Laura Thomas, former CIA chief of base and vice president of corporate strategy at ColdQuanta. “When they do, they bring enormous opportunity coupled with the power for intense disruption, in all arenas, to include national security and economic security.”

National security, public safety, and privacy have already collided in the past several years, added retired United States Navy rear admiral and former senior cybersecurity specialist at the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, Mike Brown, and quantum is likely to intensity matters moving forward. “Quantum security, with quantum computing and encryption, are foundational to public and private sector efforts to counter nation states, rogue actors, criminals, and others.”

Growing quantum-resilient market reflects future of cybersecurity 

QuSecure’s debut launch reflects a growing quantum-resilient cybersecurity market in which technology, solutions, and software providers old and new are coming to trade with quantum-enhanced offerings as new standards surrounding quantum-safe encryption algorithms emerge. Toshiba, PureVPN and BT are just a few organizations that have recently announced new investment in the quantum-resilient security space whilst the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) works toward introducing standards for quantum-resistant public key cryptographic algorithms.

“Gartner is projecting that most of the current asymmetric cryptography will be unsafe to use for securing data by the end of this decade, due to the advancement of quantum computing,” Mark Hovarth, senior director analyst at Gartner, tells CSO. “Securing against a quantum computing attack will become the new normal and is going to be required in just about every product on an ongoing basis.”

Quantum-safe algorithms will be hitting the market for the foreseeable future in a trend that favors modular crypto that can be swapped out relatively invisibly to the end users (and maybe developers), Hovarth adds. “We call this modularity ‘crypto-agility,’ meaning that as new algorithms get adopted, we follow an agile way of updating or changing them. This is probably going to be the standard procedure.”

Beware marketing hype of quantum-secure offerings

With the quantum-resilient trend snowballing, Forrester Vice President, Research Director Merritt Maxim warns organizations to be wary of marketing hype surrounding new products and solutions. “The encryption market has always been an area where there has been some level over-hyped marketing,” he tells CSO. “This may be more marketing speak than actual, serious technological innovation.”

Wider discussion and awareness of quantum security is a good way of getting organizations to think about their long-term plans in the area, but it may be a challenge for them to effectively distinguish genuine technological innovation from sales “snake oil”, Maxim adds. “Validating the efficacy of claims is going to be challenging, and businesses will probably be subjected to a lot of mathematics to prove quantum resistance.”