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Supercomputing Technology

New Advances Promise Secure Quantum Computing At Home (phys.org) 27

Scientists from Oxford University Physics have developed a breakthrough in cloud-based quantum computing that could allow it to be harnessed by millions of individuals and companies. The findings have been published in the journal Physical Review Letters. Phys.Org reports: In the new study, the researchers use an approach dubbed "blind quantum computing," which connects two totally separate quantum computing entities -- potentially an individual at home or in an office accessing a cloud server -- in a completely secure way. Importantly, their new methods could be scaled up to large quantum computations. "Using blind quantum computing, clients can access remote quantum computers to process confidential data with secret algorithms and even verify the results are correct, without revealing any useful information. Realizing this concept is a big step forward in both quantum computing and keeping our information safe online," said study lead Dr. Peter Drmota, of Oxford University Physics.

The researchers created a system comprising a fiber network link between a quantum computing server and a simple device detecting photons, or particles of light, at an independent computer remotely accessing its cloud services. This allows so-called blind quantum computing over a network. Every computation incurs a correction that must be applied to all that follow and needs real-time information to comply with the algorithm. The researchers used a unique combination of quantum memory and photons to achieve this. The results could ultimately lead to commercial development of devices to plug into laptops, to safeguard data when people are using quantum cloud computing services.
"We have shown for the first time that quantum computing in the cloud can be accessed in a scalable, practical way which will also give people complete security and privacy of data, plus the ability to verify its authenticity," said Professor David Lucas, who co-heads the Oxford University Physics research team and is lead scientist at the UK Quantum Computing and Simulation Hub, led from Oxford University Physics.
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New Advances Promise Secure Quantum Computing At Home

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  • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Friday April 12, 2024 @05:15AM (#64388692)

    Get it to work first, then get it to work reliably, then make it cost effective. Then we can talk. Say, in > 100 years or so. Until then, STFU about "applications".

    • Get it to work first, then get it to work reliably, then make it cost effective. Then we can talk. Say, in > 100 years or so. Until then, STFU about "applications".

      But I was promised a Beowulf cluster by Christmas..

    • Got to get in early for VC money and grant money. That's why I'm selling parking spaces for flying cars today, to make sure I'm the market leader when the time is right.

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        You need to sell parking space for flying cars on _Mars_!

        • I'm hoping to live with Jeff Bezos on a floating city in Venus's atmosphere. I'm going to Old Mans War [goodreads.com] this and get a new body in my 80's so I can join Bezos' space marines and we can invade and destroy Elon Musk on Mars.

  • What now? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Friday April 12, 2024 @06:05AM (#64388734)

    At home or cloud-based? It is either-or.

    • by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Friday April 12, 2024 @07:00AM (#64388814)

      At home or cloud-based? It is either-or.

      You won’t know until you actually use the service. Remember, this is quantum computing. /s

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      The "at home" part is the "feel-good" part, the cloud part is where the fake the quantum computations. So it _can_ be both!

    • by fyngyrz ( 762201 )

      At home or cloud-based? It is either-or.

      Exactly. These marketing twerps no longer know WTF the words they use even mean. If they ever did. Also, using "secure" in the same context with "the cloud"... that's a similar bit of nonsense. When your data leaves your hands, even just crossing the Internet, it's no longer secure. One party can keep a secret. Anything else... can very quickly become not a secret. As we have seen many times. And of course, we should never forget about this [wikipedia.org].

    • Like seemingly everything today, even if it is "at home", if your internet connectivity is down nothing is likely to work. Limitations with disconnected applications can be anything from an architectural limitation where it needs data or a service, to bone-headed limitations like it needs to do a version check on a Python package before it can start.

      • And this is why I don't consider home automation that requires some kind of online connectivity broken by design. It's like handing the key to your home to someone you don't know and ask them to let you in. And if they feel like it, they even may.

        • Or one of those cheesy sci-fi stories where the building's computer shuts down and kills everyone inside. I'm always a little surprised when we intentionally try to create a ridiculous dystopian future.

  • by Mr. Dollar Ton ( 5495648 ) on Friday April 12, 2024 @06:33AM (#64388770)

    This thing, hooked to a block-chain AI... It will be unstoppable.

  • After 27 years.. Been interesting.

    • by kackle ( 910159 )
      Wow, it's been 27 years for Slashdot...

      I'm sorry to read about your woes on another post; thanks for sharing the website with us. I can only hope that an afterlife and/or other "dimensions and universes" are somehow a benefit to all of us in the future.
    • Thanks Kackle, wish it weren't so.

  • No AI? (Score:4, Funny)

    by sdinfoserv ( 1793266 ) on Friday April 12, 2024 @07:13AM (#64388836)
    Well, if it's not AI driven block chain quantum processing, I'm not interested... Get with it
  • With this people will be able to access securely the resources of a quantum computer from home. Too bad that, forty years or so after they were first proposed, and twenty-five of serious investment and even more serious hype, quantum computers cannot do anything of practical interest yet, it is not clear when they will be able to, or even when. What is clear is that a quantum computer winter is looming.
  • Oh wait! Quantum Computing is already at that state, so why change it?

The question of whether computers can think is just like the question of whether submarines can swim. -- Edsger W. Dijkstra

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