Maltese computer scientist Dr Christian Colombo from the University of Malta recently started work on a NATO-funded research project entitled Secure Communication in the Quantum Era. 

The project aims to develop concrete, efficient security protocols that can keep the internet safe should the new technology of large-scale quantum computing become a reality in future. Such protocols would then be securely implemented on different target platforms and shielded against potential attacks using runtime verification techniques.

Should quantum computing become more practically viable, computing power would increase dramatically, making it possible to solve mathematically difficult problems in reasonable time. Such problems include optimal scheduling of time or space, and accurately modelling highly complex systems such as the weather or the stock market.

The downside of such a quantum leap in computing at our disposal is that internet security could be compromised since it is based on the assumption that it is not feasible to efficiently solve certain problems, such as finding factors of large numbers. However, with quantum computing this could change and what was once considered secure might not remain so.

The first meeting of researchers involved in the project was recently held in Malta and was attended by Prof. Otokar Grošek from the Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Dr Rainer Steinwandt from the Florida Atlantic University, the US, and Dr María Isabel González Vasco from King Juan Carlos University, Spain.

For further information visit the website below.

https://re-search.info