Lifeboat Foundation

As connectivity continues to expand and the number of devices on a network with it, IoT’s ambition of creating a world of connected things grows. Yet, with pros, comes the cons, and the flip side of this is the growing security challenges that come with it too.

Security has been a perennial concern for IoT since it’s utilisation beyond its use for basic functions like tallying the stock levels of a soda machine. However, for something of such interest to the industry, plans for standardisation remain allusive. Instead, piece meal plans to ensure different elements of security, like zero trust for identity and access management for devices on a network, or network segmentation for containing breaches, are undertaken by different companies according to their needs.

Yet with the advancement of technology, things like quantum computing pose a risk to classic cryptography methods which, among other things, ensures data privacy is secure when being transferred from device to device or even to the Cloud.

Quantum advantage is the milestone the field of quantum computing is fervently working toward, where a quantum computer can solve problems that are beyond the reach of the most powerful non-quantum, or classical, computers.

Quantum refers to the scale of atoms and molecules where the laws of physics as we experience them break down and a different, counterintuitive set of laws apply. Quantum computers take advantage of these strange behaviors to solve problems.

Continue reading “What Is Quantum Advantage? A Quantum Computing Scientist Explains An Approaching Milestone Marking The Arrival Of Extremely Powerful Computers” »

Researchers around the world are working on a network which could connect quantum computers with one another over long distances. Andreas Reiserer, Professor of Quantum Networks at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), explains the challenges which have to be mastered and how atoms captured in crystals can help.

The idea is the same: We use today’s internet to connect computers with one another, while the quantum internet lets quantum computers communicate with one another. But in technical terms the quantum internet is much more complex. That’s why only smaller networks have been realized as yet.

There are two main applications: First of all, networking quantum computers makes it possible to increase their computing power; second, a quantum network will make absolutely interception-proof encryption of communication possible. But there are other applications as well, for example networking telescopes to achieve a previously impossible resolution in order to look into the depths of the universe, or the possibility of synchronizing atomic clocks around the world extremely precisely, making it possible to investigate completely new physical questions.

Quantum advantage is the milestone the field of quantum computing is fervently working toward, where a quantum computer can solve problems that are beyond the reach of the most powerful non-quantum, or classical, computers.

Quantum refers to the scale of atoms and molecules where the laws of physics as we experience them break down and a different, counterintuitive set of laws apply. Quantum computers take advantage of these strange behaviors to solve problems.

Continue reading “A scientist explains an approaching milestone marking the arrival of quantum computers” »

Investors are always looking for the next great breakthrough in technology. As computers are indispensable tools for managing everything from finance to healthcare and smart cities, it only makes sense to look at the next stage of development and A-rated quantum computing stocks.

Quantum computing is still in its early stages, but companies are already making inroads. Zapata surveyed executives at 300 companies with revenues of $250 million and computing budgets over $1 million. Of those, over two-thirds spent more than $1 million annually to develop quantum computing applications.

Quantum computer stocks represent companies trying to revolutionize cryptography, optimization, drug discovery and artificial intelligence. It holds promise for solving complex problems currently infeasible for classical computers due to their exponential time requirements.

The most secure RSA encryption can now be cracked using a smartphone or PC, according to a new highly-contested scientific paper.

Quantum-based systems promise faster computing and stronger encryption for computation and communication systems. These systems can be built on fiber networks involving interconnected nodes which consist of qubits and single-photon generators that create entangled photon pairs.

In this regard, rare-earth (RE) atoms and ions in solid-state materials are highly promising as single-photon generators. These materials are compatible with fiber networks and emit photons across a broad range of wavelengths. Due to their wide spectral range, optical fibers doped with these RE elements could find use in various applications, such as free-space telecommunication, fiber-based telecommunications, quantum random number generation, and high-resolution image analysis. However, so far, single-photon light sources have been developed using RE-doped crystalline materials at cryogenic temperatures, which limits the practical applications of quantum networks based on them.

In a study published in Physical Review Applied on 16 October 2023, a team of researchers from Japan, led by Associate Professor Kaoru Sanaka from Tokyo University of Science (TUS) has successfully developed a single-photon light source consisting of doped ytterbium ions (Yb³⁺) in an amorphous silica optical fiber at room temperature. This newly developed single-photon light source eliminates the need for expensive cooling systems and has the potential to make quantum networks more cost-effective and accessible.

Google has taken a significant step towards enhancing Chrome internet security by automatically upgrading insecure HTTP requests to HTTPS requests for 100% of users.

This feature is called HTTPS-Upgrades and will secure old links that utilize the http:// by automatically attempting to first connect to the URL over the encrypted https:// protocol.

A limited rollout of this feature in Google Chrome began in July, but as of October 16th, Google has now rolled it out to all users on the Stable channel.

If you wanted to, you could access an “evil” version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT today—though it’s going to cost you. It also might not necessarily be legal depending on where you live.

However, getting access is a bit tricky. You’ll have to find the right web forums with the right users. One of those users might have a post marketing a private and powerful large language model (LLM). You’ll connect with them on an encrypted messaging service like Telegram where they’ll ask you for a few hundred dollars in cryptocurrency in exchange for the LLM.

Once you have access to it, though, you’ll be able to use it for all the things that ChatGPT or Google’s Bard prohibits you from doing: have conversations about any illicit or ethically dubious topic under the sun, learn how to cook meth or create pipe bombs, or even use it to fuel a cybercriminal enterprise by way of phishing schemes.