LONDON, April 24, 2024 -- Arqit Quantum Inc. (Arqit), a leader in quantum-safe encryption, today announced the successful trial deployment of Arqit’s Network Secure product by the Satellite Applications Catapult which works across the space sector to make use of and benefit from satellite technologies.

The satellite sector is strategically important with long lived sensitive data and so is a prime target for intellectual property theft. Satellite sector organisations must ensure they are safe from both current and future cyber threats including from quantum computing. Nation states and cyber adversaries are known to be deploying “store-now, decrypt-later” attacks, stockpiling encrypted data to decrypt it with the advent of quantum computing. There is an urgent need to harden encryption for network infrastructure today both for users transmitting data over satellite infrastructure as well as for the multitude of organisations in the supply chain that develop and operate it.

David Williams, Arqit Founder, Chairman and CEO said: “In an era where well-motivated state actors relentlessly target critical sectors such as the satellite industry, the imperative for robust cybersecurity measures has never been more urgent. Arqit’s ground-breaking symmetric encryption technology hardens networks and is simple to deploy making data harvesting attacks impossible. We were delighted to trial Network Secure with Satellite Applications Catapult and demonstrate how it could safeguard sensitive IP and research data from current and future cyber threats.”

Paul Febvre, CTO of the Satellite Applications Catapult said: “Being prepared for a quantum future is an essential concern of CTOs and CIOs across the globe, and taking incremental steps by exploring new technologies as they become available improves awareness, skills and resilience against future shocks.

“At the Satellite Applications Catapult, we are keen to lead by example through building a better understanding of the operational challenges associated with deployment and exploitation of technologies and systems.

“We are pleased to have been able to work with Arqit, and to test the performance of their Symmetric Key Agreement Platform over existing hardware in our network infrastructure. We anticipate that we will be deploying such technologies into our operational systems to provide greater protection to our communities in the future.”