Interview: James Nguyen, Co-Founder and CEO, Quantropi – Y2Q and the Quantum

Quantropi is one of the leading sponsors at Quantum.Tech Europe 2022. We caught up with James Nguyen, Co-Founder and CEO at Quantropi, to get his thoughts on Y2Q and the quantum threat to today’s cryptography, the quantum space in general, and what he's looking forward to at Quantum.Tech Europe.

What is Y2Q and when will it arrive?

Y2Q (Years to Quantum) is the date when quantum computers are expected to defeat today’s public-key cryptography. Organizations from NATO to the White House are already taking concrete steps to prepare for Y2Q. Meanwhile, NIST (U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology) just announced its first four quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms.

So when will it be here? No one can say but, in my opinion, a lot sooner than many people think.

According to the 2021 Quantum Threat Timeline Report (January 2022), cybersecurity experts are confident that quantum computers will be able to break RSA-2048 within 15 years. The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is more pessimistic, estimating that will happen only 8 years from now — still a blink of an eye, in enterprise or government terms.

What really struck me is a recent global survey of 614 security professionals carried out by Dimensional Research that found 61% think that quantum attacks will neutralize current encryption tech within just 2 years and 28% think that current encryption technologies will be compromised within 3-5 years.

No matter how you slice it, the Quantum threat is coming fast and furious. Organizations and governments need to prepare today.

That’s where Quantropi comes in. Our TrUE Quantum-Secure cryptography solutions protect data in motion and at rest from ANY quantum attack. Today.

How are you helping organizations prepare for quantum computing attacks?

We’ve developed a hybrid-SaaS platform called QiSpace™ that enables enterprises, product managers and application developers to harden and secure their data, networks, systems, and communications... and protect their trusted customer relationships, from today’s cyberattacks and tomorrow’s quantum threats.

Uniquely capable of all three prerequisites for end-to-end quantum security – Trust, Uncertainty, and Entropy – only QiSpace™ provides “TrUE” quantum security.

MASQ™ – Quantropi’s Trust offering – provides quantum-secure asymmetric encryption, also known as post-quantum cryptography (PQC).

QEEP™ – Quantropi’s Uncertainty offering – provides quantum-secure symmetric encryption that’s up to 18 times faster than AES-256.

And SEQUR™ – Quantropi’s Entropy offering – provides quantum random number generation and quantum-secure key distribution (Digital QKD) to enable the full security potential of current cryptographic algorithms.

Right now, people can apply to trial QiSpace™. They can crack it open and play in our sandbox. Quantum-securing applications, devices, systems, or entire networks has never been easier. Anyone interested can apply here.

Are you able to give us a bit more information about SEQUR™ and your Digital QKD solution?

We introduced our Digital QKD product at RSA Conference this past June in San Francisco. We call the product SEQUR™ SynQK. In the demo, we generated and digitally distributed synchronized quantum keys, onsite, at the conference, and essentially shattered several world records. We delivered at least 5 simultaneous Quantum-key streams over distances ranging from 4,000 to 15,000 KM at speeds ranging from 130 to 190 megabits per second – for context, each of the five streams equates to 8 – 12 times what Google.com uses every second)!

By ensuring that the same stream of true random numbers is quantum-securely delivered to all enabled nodes, SEQUR™ SynQK offers major cost savings over QKD and it can work over any IP network, including wireless networks — which is true a game-changer.

The solution has been designed to comply with ETSI-014 to enable simple and seamless integration into environments supporting the OpenQKD standard. It brings quantum security to endpoints QKD cannot feasibly serve.

What makes Quantropi’s approach to quantum cybersecurity unique?

Our patented, quantum-secure cryptographic products are powered by quantum mechanics expressed as linear algebra - simple, elegant math that has been around for centuries.