UAE cryptographers lead battle against hackers
In a connected world where everything from refrigerators and watches to cars and surgical tools are linked to the internet, cryptography – the basis of digital security – has never been more important.
One of its applications is encryption, or converting information into what should be an unbreakable code, typically to prevent unauthorised access.
But the rise of quantum computers, capable of breaking today’s encryption protocols “at a speed and scale beyond anything we’ve ever seen”, according the Future Today Institute, poses unprecedented national security threats worldwide.
The UAE, which announced plans to build a quantum computer last month, has joined some of the world’s biggest economies in prioritising cryptography research. It is the first country in the Middle East to do so. The woman leading the UAE’s cryptography plans says the level of research being conducted at the Technology Innovation Institute in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, is unlike anywhere in the world.
Speaking to The National, Dr Najwa Aaraj, who was appointed chief researcher at the Cryptography Research Centre at the TII last year, outlined her plans for the cutting-edge initiative that will give the UAE “sovereignty” over the future of its digital security.
“I want the country to be known for this field,” she said.
The centre performs applied research for the Abu Dhabi government’s Advanced Technology Research Council.
It is one of the few centres of its kind to bring together theoretical and applied cryptographers from the public and private sector and from around the world.
Dr Aaraj, who obtained her doctorate in information security from Princeton University in the US, oversees a team of 50 people and is hiring for about a dozen positions.
“We assembled a team of professionals from across the global cryptography community to investigate the current and future challenges of digital society and to respond with practical solutions,” Dr Aaraj said.
She said the qualities of the lab in Abu Dhabi “cannot be found anywhere else”.
“You get connected to the East, to the West, to the US, to Europe, and you can have really good collaboration.
“So at the end, the intellectual environment that I’ve had in Abu Dhabi and the UAE, I can confidently say I haven’t had it anywhere else.”
TII recently announced partnerships with Yale University and a board of advisers from Radboud University in the Netherlands, the University of Toulouse and Ecole normale superieure de Lyon in France and Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany.
“I still work with Princeton with my adviser on a few research topics,” Dr Aaraj said.
Last month, her team introduced a software library to store algorithms capable of fighting off attacks in a post-quantum world.
The algorithms are designed to protect confidential data and information, and advance digital data security in the capital and rest of the country.
TII’s work focuses on data confidentiality, integrity, authentication and privacy.
It was the second such library Dr Aaraj’s team introduced. The first was the “national sovereign” cryptography library, which is being integrated into digital infrastructure and several systems in the country.
Dr Aaraj said these algorithms, which can safeguard the UAE’s data in sectors such as finance, defence and health care, are developed in-country and owned exclusively by the UAE.
Not having control over these data safeguards leaves countries vulnerable to an everincreasing number of threats.
Abu Dhabi is positioning itself as a technology and industrial hub. Earlier this month, Rashed Al Blooshi, undersecretary of Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, said the emirate is focused on a number of nonoil sectors, including industry, agriculture, tourism, health and technology, to diversify its economy.
Dr Aaraj is keen to support that mission, and confident she can deliver on growing the emirate’s technology sector.
“We have a very strong team here from Emirati talent and also global talent,” she said.
Countries like the US, France, the UK and China are pouring billions of dollars into preparing for a post-quantum future.
Governments are vying to attract talent and investment before the first real-world quantum use cases, according to the Future Today Institute, which outlined national efforts.
The US passed the National Quantum Initiative Act in 2018, marking $1.2 billion for research.
Last year it opened five new quantum computing centres, including one at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, to build nuclear, chemical and physics applications.
Ahead of the curve is the UK, which launched the National Quantum Technologies Programme in 2013 with $1.3bn.
Germany’s programme is funded at $2.4bn, according to the Future Today Institute.
Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China published a paper in the journal Science describing their quantum computer achieving speeds 10 billion times faster than Google’s Sycamore quantum processor, which was the first to achieve “quantum supremacy”.
The intellectual environment that I’ve had in Abu Dhabi and the UAE ... I haven’t had it anywhere else
DR NAJWA AARAJ
Chief researcher, CRC