Juniper Beyond Labs & Quantum Bridge Partnership Fireside Chat 1: Key Trends in Quantum Networking

0:01 [Music]

0:07 hello and thanks for joining I'm Shila

0:10 Nesh marketing lead for Juniper Beyond

0:12 Labs The Innovation Hub of Juniper

0:15 Networks Quantum Computing has been a

0:17 Hot Topic in the security and networking

0:20 Industries and it's set to revolutionize

0:22 how we communicate compute and secure

0:25 data through principles of quantum

0:28 mechanics it will enable cap AB

0:30 abilities to extend beyond the

0:32 capabilities of today's classical

0:34 systems and impact the way that

0:37 companies across cyber security

0:39 financial services and Health Care think

0:42 about their network operations the world

0:45 economic forum is predicting that nearly

0:47 20 billion devices will need to be

0:50 upgraded or replaced to protect against

0:53 Quantum Computing algorithms and many

0:56 academics and Industry experts have been

0:59 calling for creating Quantum safe

1:01 Technologies and networks today I'm so

1:04 excited to have Matia Montagna CEO and

1:08 co-founder of quantum bridge to share

1:10 his perspective on the focus of quantum

1:13 safe networking well Matia thank you so

1:16 much for joining us today I know you've

1:18 been very busy traveling around the

1:20 world talking about the future of

1:21 quantum safe networks thank you a lot

1:23 for inviting me and I'm very excited to

1:25 be here today tell us a little bit about

1:26 yourself and what Quantum Bridge does hi

1:29 a physicist by background and then I um

1:32 transition um into Applied Mathematics I

1:35 spent several years working in the

1:37 financial industry uh for the European

1:40 Central Bank and uh during that period I

1:43 realized the importance of cyber

1:45 security for the stability of our

1:47 financial industry and so in 2018 I

1:50 decided to leave the bank and U go back

1:53 to physics and start to um build a

1:56 company that was protecting against this

1:57 new threat that was coming uh and was uh

2:00 threatening the stability of the

2:02 financial industry but also in general

2:04 our our societies awesome well you've

2:07 actually mentioned something that I know

2:09 is top of mind for many people in the

2:11 networking industry the quantum threat

2:13 so what is the Quantum threat and why is

2:16 it becoming such a Hot Topic um yeah so

2:19 in the in the past decades many

2:22 scientists around the world started to

2:24 develop a New Concept for doing

2:26 computation which is not based on um

2:28 classical physics like the current

2:30 computers that we have but instead is

2:32 based on quantum mechanical laws so

2:35 quantum mechanics is a Theory of physics

2:36 that explain the behavior of nature at

2:39 very very small scale uh more small

2:41 scale and uh um with this with this type

2:45 of uh um with this type of physics you

2:48 can build the computers which are able

2:50 to do computation and U uh solving

2:53 problem which is not possible using

2:55 classical computers now this is a great

2:58 thing in general for the evolution of

3:00 computation in the field um of computer

3:03 science but it turned out that one of

3:05 the problem that this quantum computer

3:07 can solve is actually to break most of

3:09 the cryptography which is currently used

3:11 in current networks and in particular

3:14 what is called asymmetric cryptography

3:17 right so if we look at the growth of the

3:19 internet in the past three four decades

3:21 the existence of asymmetri cryptography

3:24 would allow parties to exchange

3:27 cryptographic keys to protect their

3:29 traffic uh without having uh met before

3:32 without having uh to exchange the key

3:34 physically like it was done in the 60 or

3:36 in the 70s so the the introduction of

3:38 asymmetric cryptography allow a large

3:41 number of application and it governs

3:43 most of the internet today um but a

3:46 symmetric cryptography is based on some

3:49 specific type of mathematical problems

3:51 which now can be broken by the arrival

3:54 of quantum computers and so this create

3:55 a big um crisis let's say if you want in

3:58 the world of cyber security because all

4:00 the internet is protected by this

4:02 asymmetric

4:03 cryptography yeah thank you for sharing

4:05 it I understand that it's becoming such

4:07 a more um impactful conversation now and

4:11 I know a lot of people have been asking

4:12 and they're curious to know how imminent

4:15 is the Quantum thread and how much time

4:16 do we have to get ready for it um that's

4:19 a very tough question it's very

4:21 difficult to predict when um a quantum

4:23 computer will be ready and especially

4:25 what is called a cryptographically

4:27 relevant quantum computer but uh with

4:29 think that um a quantum computer would

4:32 likely appear a cryptographically

4:34 relevant quantum computer would likely

4:36 appear in the next 10 to 15 years so in

4:38 order to get ready what are some of the

4:42 common protocols or methods that you've

4:44 seen people use to counteract the threat

4:47 yes good question the um nista recently

4:50 came up with a new set of asymmetric

4:52 cryptographic algorithm right so still

4:55 based on the concept of um a symmetric

4:57 cryptography and public private key

5:00 that are believed to be saved against

5:02 quantum computer attacks now the problem

5:04 with quantum computer um is that uh um

5:08 we also don't know exactly how to

5:10 predict new algorithm that will be

5:12 developed in the future because it's

5:14 such a new paradigm right for

5:15 computation so we don't know when the

5:17 machine will be ready but we also don't

5:19 know which type of algorithm will be

5:20 available so for sure um it is necessary

5:24 to migrate current as symmetric

5:25 cryptography to system that we know um

5:28 are safe against currently known quantum

5:31 computer attacks it doesn't mean that in

5:33 the future there will be new quantum

5:35 computer attacks that break this type of

5:37 new cryptography that is proposed by by

5:39 nist but uh this is the first family

5:42 let's say of solution that can be

5:43 adopted for counteracting the quantum

5:45 threat so postquantum cryptography is

5:48 called so a symmetric encryption but

5:50 with new type of mathematics behind and

5:53 then there are other two categories

5:54 available one is a so-called Quantum key

5:57 distribution that still use the of

6:00 quantum mechanics to um exchange

6:03 cryptography Keys between between

6:04 parties and Quantum key distribution at

6:07 the advantage to be provably safe

6:09 against quantum computer attacks so if

6:11 you use quantum key distribution you're

6:13 mathematically sure that uh there is no

6:15 future advancement in classical or

6:17 quantum computer that can break that uh

6:19 and this is the second category and then

6:21 the third category of solution um are

6:24 based on what we can call symmetric key

6:26 exchange solution that require the

6:29 physical delivery of some cryptographic

6:32 material uh between a what we can call

6:35 service provider or a key distribution

6:37 center in a way that is provably quantum

6:40 safe as well so those are the three

6:42 category let's say post Quantum

6:44 cryptography uh Quantum key distribution

6:46 and symmetric key exchange solution and

6:49 Quantum bridg is pioneering the field of

6:51 symmetric key exchange solution so you

6:53 mentioned that your team is involved

6:55 with the symmetric key exchange

6:57 distribution how can you talk a littleit

6:59 more about how like what your solution

7:02 is for that yes the typical um symmetric

7:06 key exchange solution historically is um

7:08 is implemented by having a trusted key

7:11 distribution center and uh when two

7:13 parties that normally those are called

7:15 helis and Bob for aab uh two party want

7:18 to communicate the key distribution

7:19 center generates two identical keys and

7:23 physically deliver the keys to Ellis and

7:25 Bob using some specific uh um let's say

7:28 media like like a key loers they're

7:30 called normally but you can think about

7:32 them as very very secure USB key or

7:34 something similar so those uh those key

7:36 are physically shipped to uh to Ellis

7:39 and Bob they're deliver physically and

7:41 uh Ellis and Bob then can use the key

7:43 for for communication and uh clearly a

7:46 quantum computer cannot do much here

7:48 because there is nothing transmitted

7:49 there is no packets that can be U uh

7:52 stolen or intercepted by um by an

7:56 adversary and then decrypted with a

7:57 quantum computer is a physical delivery

7:59 involved now the problem with this type

8:01 of solution which historically has been

8:03 used before a symmetric cryptography was

8:06 established so let's say before the

8:08 before the 80s uh or around the period

8:11 um and normally for defense uh

8:13 intelligence agencies and critical

8:16 infrastructure those type of solutions

8:18 suffer from two main issue the first is

8:20 that you have a trusted key distribution

8:22 center that knows the keys of everyone

8:24 and this can be a good thing sometimes

8:26 but it can also be a bad thing in case

8:28 this key distribution center is

8:29 compromised the entire network is

8:31 compromised um and second you have

8:33 scalability problems because every time

8:35 two new uh parties want to communicate

8:37 the key distribution center needs to

8:40 deliver those keys so Quantum Bridge Is

8:43 providing a solution that overcome these

8:45 two main limitations so the first one

8:47 instead of having a single key

8:49 distribution center we have multiple of

8:51 what we call security HS and the

8:53 security up do not know the key of the

8:55 client thanks to a protocol called

8:57 secret sharing the information about the

8:59 Keys actually split among these multiple

9:01 security arms and unless they collude

9:04 they will not able to get the

9:05 information wow um and uh the other

9:08 problem of scalability we solve it

9:10 instead of uh delivering a key which is

9:13 pre-assigned for L is to use only with

9:15 Bob we just send a lot of cryptographic

9:17 material at the beginning and then we

9:18 have a protocol that allow Ellis to

9:20 distill a key from the cryptographic

9:22 material with any other um client let's

9:25 say who is in the network and so in this

9:27 way Ellis does not need to de in advance

9:30 who she want to communicate with uh but

9:32 she get on boarded with some amount of

9:34 cryptographic material that we call

9:36 preure random data and then she used the

9:38 security H as a broker to generate key

9:40 with anybody else nice I'm glad to hear

9:44 more about how your organization is

9:47 thinking about counteracting the quantum

9:50 threat I want to touch back to something

9:52 you mentioned around the recent nist

9:55 standards that were released just in the

9:57 summer and related to post Quantum

9:59 cryptography how do you think that

10:02 GSK helps like how how do you see that

10:05 impact it um at Quantum Bridge we think

10:08 that um dsk and postquantum cryptography

10:13 can live together and this is not just

10:15 our opinion as Quantum bridge but this

10:17 is an an opinion that is publicly uh

10:20 made publicly available by several

10:22 cryptographic Authority around the world

10:24 the use of pqc so post Quantum

10:26 cryptography together with symmetric

10:28 isolution like dsk um allow for a

10:31 defense in depth and uh allow you to

10:34 overcome the limitation that both had uh

10:37 they both present and have a solution

10:40 that uh eliminate any form of residual

10:43 risk coming from the quantum threat well

10:46 Matia you've shared so many great

10:48 insights today around the quantum thread

10:51 and the future of quantum safe networks

10:53 thank you very much for sharing your

10:55 perspective with me and the audience

10:57 today thank you very much sha for

10:58 inviting me here

10:59 for those of you who are curious to

11:01 learn more about Quantum Bridge Juniper

11:03 Beyond labs and Juniper Networks take a

11:06 look at the links in the description

11:08 below thank you so much for joining us

11:10 today