Government agency Euro Mediti Ltd and Synaptic Laboratories have signed an agreement to undertake a four-month study on the establishment of a globally unique, virtual ICT cluster of excellence in Gozo.
The ICT cluster of excellence, which is being promoted by the Gozo Business Chamber, is focused on post-quantum security. Quantum computers exist and their well-funded development in most regions and eventual availability, will present significant information security problems to governments and businesses.
Essential standard-based security systems which are currently in use will fail against attacks: presenting a clear risk of data breaches and exploitation of past and present secure information. The tools and processes developed by the organisations involved in the proposed cluster are expected to provide sophisticated protection, as well as preventing unauthorised access to government and corporate operating systems and programmes.
Euro Mediti Ltd was set up by the government in 2007 to accelerate the transfer of critical technologies in the Euro-Mediterranean region, using Malta as a test bed for technology adaption and exploitation.
Euro Mediti Ltd has also been involved in the establishment of the marine software engineering cluster of excellence (Marsec-XL). Euro Mediti's shareholders are Malta Enterprise, MCST, the University of Malta and the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Synaptic Laboratories Ltd is a research and development company committed to low-cost post quantum security solutions to protect essential business infrastructure such as e-commerce, e-mail, secure shell and virtual private networks. Its solutions run on many platforms, including smart cards, PCs, and servers.
"The Synaptic approach to addressing the needs of the global ICT community is unique," chief executive officer Ron Kelson explained. "We are promoting an easy upgrade path that allows many commercial off-the-shelf security systems and proprietary business systems to be protected without any need to modify their existing protocols.
"The Synaptic solutions can be described as security filters that wrap around and protect the network traffic generated by these products."
The cluster will target new global export markets and new opportunities for international collaboration for Malta. Companies offering assistance include Swiss-based ID Quantique, the first company to bring quantum cryptography solutions to the market, including protecting the government elections in Geneva, the German Security Company Utimaco, the German VPN company NCP (www.ncp-e.com), Swiss financial company Argentum Group, Geneva, and Finnish security company SSH Ltd.
For enquiries contact Mr Kelson on 7956 2164 or e-mail r.kelson@synaptic-labs.com, or Euro Mediti Ltd's John Attard on 2122 4544 or e-mail ceo@euromediti.com.