QUANTUM COMPUTER SHIELDED FROM HACKS
Powerful encryption technology for Origin Wukong shows nation’s advanced home-grown machine ‘can play both offence and defence’
China’s most advanced superconducting quantum computer has put up a powerful shield against potential attack by other quantum computers, three months after opening access to the world.
The new encryption technology was installed in Origin Wukong – China’s first home-grown third-generation superconducting quantum computer – to ensure the security of its operational data, the official Science and Technology Daily said.
Countries around the world had been developing similar “post-quantum cryptography” techniques to “effectively resist quantum computer attacks”, the newspaper reported.
The new methods were to replace the conventional public-key cryptography system, which could be vulnerable.
The report quoted Dou Menghan, deputy director of the Anhui Quantum Computing Engineering Research Centre, as saying the “anti-quantum attack shield” was developed and used for the first time by Origin Quantum, the developer of the computer named after the mythological Monkey King.
“This shows that China’s home-grown superconducting quantum computer can play both offence and defence in the field of quantum computing,” he said.
“This is also an important exploration of the application of new data security technologies in China.”
Origin launched its first superconducting quantum computer in 2020. The next year, the company delivered the 24-qubit Wuyuan second-generation machine – the country’s first practical quantum computer – making China the third country capable of delivering a complete quantum computing system after Canada and the United States.
The third-generation Wukong is powered by a 72-qubit homegrown superconducting quantum chip, known as the Wukong chip.
In January, the superfast computer opened remote access to the world, attracting users from countries such as the US, Russia and Japan. In traditional computing, a bit is the basic unit of information that represents either zero or one. A quantum bit, or qubit, is able to represent zero, one or both simultaneously.
As a result, quantum computers hold theoretical potential for significantly faster and more powerful computation.
But the subatomic particles central to this are fragile, shortlived and prone to errors if exposed to minor environmental disturbances. Most quantum computers operate in isolated and extremely cold environments to avoid disruption.
The normal operating temperature of the Wukong chip is close to absolute zero, or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius.