Contemporary computers might be doing amazing things for us but the truth is that there are loads of problems which they are still far away from solving. Mathematically difficult problems such as optimal scheduling of time or space, and accurately modelling highly complex systems such as the weather or the stock market are still not possible with the computing power we currently have at our disposal.
However, should the new technology of quantum computing become more practically viable, the computing power would increase dramatically and problems which up till now were unsolvable in reasonable time, might be! This is great for the list of problems out there waiting for solutions.
The downside is that Internet security is based on the assumption that certain problems (such as finding factors of large numbers) remain infeasible to solve efficiently. With quantum computing this can change and what was once considered secure might not remain so.
It is in this context that a Maltese computer scientist Dr Christian Colombo from the University of Malta joined forces with Prof. Otokar Grošek from the Slovak University of Technology, Dr Rainer Steinwandt from the Florida Atlantic University, and Dr María Isabel González Vasco from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos to work on a NATO-funded project: Secure Communication in the Quantum Era.
The project will aim to develop concrete efficient security protocols which can keep the Internet safe should large scale quantum computing become a reality. These protocols will then be securely implemented on different target platforms and shielded against potential attacks using runtime verification techniques.
The kickoff meeting was held in Malta between 29 September and 3 October.