October 28, 2024 -- Alongside artificial intelligence, quantum computing is one of the fastest-growing subsets in the high-performance computing community. But what happens when this relatively new and powerful computing method reaches the limit of the cyberinfrastructure and network security capabilities of today?

Researchers at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications are addressing this issue before it becomes a problem.

“The problem is urgent because practical quantum computers will break classical encryption in the next decade,” said NCSA Research Scientist Phuong Cao. “The issue of adopting quantum-resistant cryptographic network protocols or post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is critically important to democratizing quantum computing. The grand question of how existing cyberinfrastructure will support post-quantum cryptography remains unanswered.”

Cao and Jakub Sowa, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign undergraduate student and participant in the Illinois Cyber Security Scholars Program as well as the CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service, presented a paper on this topic at September’s IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering in Montreal. Their findings proposed the design of a novel PQC network instrument housed at NCSA and the University of Illinois, and integrated as a part of the FABRIC testbed; showcased the latest results on PQC adoption rate across a wide spectrum of network protocols; described the current state of PQC implementation in key scientific applications like OpenSSH and SciTokens; highlighted the challenges of being quantum-resistant; and emphasized discussion of potential novel attacks.

“The main challenges of adopting PQC lie in algorithmic complexity and hardware, software and network implementation,” Cao said. “This is the first large-scale measurement of PQC adoption at national-scale supercomputing centers and our results show that only OpenSSH and Google Chrome have successfully implemented PQC and achieved an initial adoption rate of 0.029% at this time.”

Cao is the principal investigator in a recent $200,000 award from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) for a plan on “Quantum-Resistant Cryptography in Supercomputing Scientific Applications.” This will enable a network instrument to measure the adoption rate of PQC and allow universities and research centers to switch to PQC in order to safeguard sensitive data and scientific research. The project will set a national example of migrating cyberinfrastructure to be quantum resistant and build public trust in the security of scientific computing by demonstrating the increased adoption rate over time.

Cao is joined by co-principal investigators and NCSA researchers Anita Nikolich, Ravishankar Iyer and Santiago Núñez-Corrales.

“Transitioning to PQC algorithms across sectors will be a lengthy process,” Nikolich said. “Our work will be the first step to understanding the scope of the problem in the scientific infrastructure community. FABRIC touches multiple locations across the globe, which will give us good points of visibility into the challenge.”

“Quantum computing’s inherent uncertainty presents a unique opportunity to both obscure cryptographic computations and develop novel applications that exploit this uncertainty,” Iyer said. “This proposal aims to explore similar challenges, leveraging NCSA’s world-class computing resources to investigate new attacks targeting supercomputing workloads that were previously impractical.”

“This project opens a new avenue into NCSA’s quantum strategy. Potential future risks introduced by quantum technologies reconfigure now our understanding of the landscape of trust and security in advanced computing,” Núñez-Corrales said. “Mapping the adoption of PQC protocols will provide valuable information toward hardening NSF-funded cyberinfrastructure nationally. We anticipate this to be a significant and lasting contribution. In addition, and as collaborators within the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center (IQUIST), our project creates opportunities to interface the expertise of theorists in Quantum Information Science on campus with security concerns found in the regular operation of leadership-class supercomputing facilities.”

“This project will provide valuable input to plans for transitioning SciTokens to PQC, ensuring that our federated ecosystem for authorization on distributed scientific computing infrastructures is prepared to resist quantum computing attacks,” said NCSA Principal Research Scientist Jim Basney and principal investigator of the NSF-funded SciTokens project. “Understanding the efficiency of token signing and verification, along with the impact on token length, will be essential for planning a smooth transition.”

In August, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) finalized its principal set of encryption algorithms designed to withstand cyberattacks from a quantum computer. The results of an eight-year effort by NIST, these encryption standards are an example of the necessary commitment to future computing security, which Cao is involved in through the NIST High Performance Security Working Group.