A quantum internet could provide more effective security against private cyber crime, Russian cyber war and Chinese efforts to gain information dominance.
The need for a post-quantum Internet is emerging, and this is a great opportunity to re-examine the legacy of public key infrastructure. There is a need for perspective on the evolution of cryptography over the years, including the perfect information theoretical secure schemes and the computationally secure schemes, in particular. There is also a need to examine the evolved Internet infrastructure to identify and design efficient and secure cryptographic schemes over the existing Internet infrastructure. A combination of overlay security, Blockchain, and Merkle trees with Lamport’s signatures implies such an easily implementable post quantum Internet.
The internet of things (IoT) has been used in a wide range of applications since its emergence, including smart cities, intelligent systems, smart homes, smart agriculture, and healthcare. IoT systems rely on information processing and sharing, where data leakages may jeopardize their security and privacy. On the other hand, quantum computers are poised to solve complex problems that traditional computers cannot. However, due to the fact that the majority of cyber algorithms are based on significant computational complexity, quantum computing poses a substantial threat to the cyber security of global digital infrastructure, including IoT networks, smart cities, banking, and intelligent infrastructure. This chapter discusses potential security and privacy measures for a post-quantum world against threats posed by quantum computing, including post-quantum cryptography, quantum software testing, post-quantum blockchain technology, and architectural considerations for creating post-quantum secure IoT systems.
The necessity of cyber-security is becoming apparent as we grow increasingly dependent on technology in our daily lives. Cybersecurity allows us to protect our digital information that is stored and transferred via the Internet. Because of this growing dependence, this research project endeavours to design, construct and evaluate new post-quantum cryptographic primitives that not only secure such information against cyber-attacks but also protect it from the probable vulnerabilities that will emerge as a result of quantum computer technology.