Cambridge Quantum (CQ), a subsidiary of Quantinuum, a world leader in integrated quantum computing, recently announced the launch of Quantum Origin, the world’s first commercially available cryptographic key generation platform based on verifiable quantum randomness. It is built using a noisy intermediate-scale quantum computer (Noisy, Intermediate-Scale Quantum, NISQ) to protect encrypted data from both current and future threats.
The strength of modern encryption standards such as RSA and AES is based on the inability to “crack” a sufficiently long string of random numbers. However, the sequences generated by today’s random number generators are not as unpredictable as we would like, which makes them vulnerable to a growing number of cyberattacks. In addition to this, the potential threat of the imminent appearance of quantum computers in criminals prompts them to steal encrypted data for future use – in the so-called hack now, decrypt later attacks.
The Quantum Origin cloud platform leverages the unpredictable nature of quantum mechanics to generate cryptographic keys whose quantum randomness is verified by Honeywell’s Quantinuum H-Series quantum computers.
Quantum Origin supports traditional algorithms such as RSA or AES, as well as post-quantum cryptography algorithms that are standardized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
An organization that requires quantum extended keys can now make a call to Quantum Origin via the API. The platform will generate the keys, then encrypt them with the transport key for secure forwarding back to the organization.
Quantum Origin Keys are suitable for any scenario where strong cyber defense is required. Cambridge Quantum will initially offer Quantum Origin to financial services companies and cybersecurity vendors and then plans to expand the service to other high-priority sectors such as telecommunications, energy, manufacturing, defense, and government.
This technology has already been used by early Cambridge Quantum partners such as Axiom Space to test post-quantum encrypted data exchange between the ISS and Earth; and Fujitsu, which has integrated Quantum Origin into its software-defined wide area network (SDWAN), which uses quantum-enhanced keys alongside traditional algorithms.