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Jun 18

20

The Vast and Far Reaching Applications of Quantum Computing

Posted by Vijayashankar Na on June 20, 2018
Posted in Cyber Law  | Tagged With: , , | No Comments yet, please leave one

At present date, Quantum Computing stands towards traditional computing like a horse did towards the Wright Brothers’ plane. The horse was much faster, but the plane could move in a tridimensional space. And we all know how the horse and the plane evolved since then, now don’t we?

Geordie Rose founder of D-Wave, 2015

To address this topic and then to place it within a context of potential leverage towards themes such as Artificial Intelligence, Secure Corporate Communications, Competitive Edge towards the marketplace as well as others … it is mandatory to start by clearly defining WHAT computing is and WHERE does Quantum Computing stand out.

So, Computing as we know it

A computer is a device that manipulates data by performing logical operations, hence computing is that precise “manipulation” action which allows data to combine and translate into added value information.

The software is the set of instructions that convey what needs to be done with the data, while the hardware is the set of electronic and mechanical components over which the data operations take place according to the provided instructions.

While the core of our universe is the “subatomic world”, meaning the Quantum particles that make all the atoms’ basic components (Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons) the core of computing (as we, humans, have developed it) consists of two logical statuses, On and Off (1/ 0) and its “base element” is called the “bit”.

So, it is a binary system where the basic components (the bits) can univocally present a status of either “1” or “0”.

Mathematically, the human being has grouped this component in clusters of 8, called “bytes” and the logic behind those bytes is that from the bit to the far right towards the bit to the far left (of the 8), each would represent a base 2 exponential figure, meaning:

  • the bit further to the right is 2 elevated to 0, therefore representing number 1
  • the following to the left is 2 elevated to 1, therefore representing number 2
  • the one farthest to the right will be the 2 elevated to 7, therefore representing 64

 

Now, the core of our “modern” computers started by splitting the Byte into two segments of 4 bits each, from left to right the first 4 would represent a number under the form of a base 2 power, while the other 4 bits  would provide the information about which type of data was to the right: a number, a letter an instruction, other. This was called the ASCII table.

The evolution of computing led this initial context to grow both in terms of numbers of bits applied to deal with the information, as well as the speed at which those operations would take place.

From 8 bits in the mid-1990s we moved to 16, 32, 64 and so on while the speed raised from some megahertz to 1 gigahertz, then 2, 4 and it keeps evolving.

In 1965, Gordon Moore the co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel, predicted (based on observation), that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit would double every two years for the following decade, therefore so would the computing capacity. In fact, the rate has been observed now for several decades, and that constitutes Moore’s Law.

Quantum Computing

Quantum computers are similar to “traditional” ones in the sense that they also use a binary system to characterize data, the difference lies in the fact that Quantum computers use one particular characteristic of subatomic particles (in specific the electrons), called the “Spin” to account for the status “0” or “1”.

The Spin is a rotational/vibration characteristic of subatomic particles that is “manageable” since it responds to magnetic fields, therefore, and in very, very simple wording, while in “traditional computers, humans control the bit status by applying or not power to a given bit; in Quantum Computers, we can affect the Status “Spin-up” which corresponds to “1” or “Spin Down” which corresponds to “0” by applying either variation to a magnetic field or a microwave focused pulse.

And what a difference this makes!

Once we move beyond the atomic world and start manipulating electrons one by one, very strange things take place.

Note: electrons are the particle of choice by two orders of reason, they are the “easiest” to extract from an atom and they behave and become photons once extracted, therefore, being able to transport information over distance as light wave particles.

Subatomic particles behave both as matter and waves, bearing the extraordinary characteristic of being able to represent both Spin-up and Spin Down status at the same given point in time.

Not to spend a couple of thousands of words describing in detail how this is possible and all the multidimensional implications that it represents (parallel universes and so on …), I will just advise you to take a look at Professor Richard Feynman lectures about Quantum Physics.

Now due to this specific characteristic of Quantum Computers (the Quantum particles), this is the point where any similarity between “traditional” computers and Quantum Computers ends.

Making the picture crystal clear, in a “traditional” computer to test all possible combinations within one set of just 4 bits so the one that applies to a given circumstance may be found, the machine goes about each of the following combinations one at a time.

Taking 16 different operations.

Now, since the Quantum computer’s bits (called Qubits) bear the capacity to represent both statuses at the same time, this process would merely require one single operation on a 4 Qubit Quantum computer!

If instead of “half a byte” (4 bits, like represented above), we speak of the latest generation software that deals with 128 bits, guess what? Analyzing all possible combinations amongst those 128 bits would require exactly one single operation on a 128 Qubit Quantum Computer!

I think that, by now, you are starting to get a picture of the involved potential, still let me give you a “hand” here; a 512 Qubit Quantum Computer would be able to analyze more data in one single operation than all the atoms that exist in the Universe.

And Quantum computing has a “Moore’s law” of its own, instead of the momentum being of doubling the processing capacity each two years, each new generation has proven to be 500 thousand times more powerful than the preceding one.

Going back to the analogy between the horse and the Wright Brothers’ plane, it’s like if they had given birth to the Lockheed SR 71 A Black Bird plane, which can fly at a speed of almost 2,200 miles per hour… now imagine what will happen a couple of generations into the future…

Constraints

Here are some constraints towards the establishment of real to the letter Quantum Computers:

  • The environment

As previously mentioned, the phenomena that allow Quantum computing to be such a powerful tool resides in the ability of subatomic particles to simultaneously represent several states; in Physics, this is called “superposition”.

Now, opposite let’s say to Quartz, which is used in modern day clocks because its molecules present a constant vibratory rate that allows high precision at a wide range of environmental conditions from pressure to temperature, humidity, luminosity and so on …, superposition only happens if no external factors are “exciting” the subatomic particles, meaning the subatomic particles only behave like that before having been exposed to any external factor.

It would be enough to have a Quantum Computer Chip hit by sun light to render it inefficient.

Therefore, a Quantum Computer is basically composed of one chip the size of a finger nail and a support cooling and isolation shell the size of an SUV that ensures the required “sterile” and isolated operational environment, and it costs around $ 25 million.

  • Algorithms

Writing algorithms for Quantum Computers requires the ability of thinking and taking into account the laws of Quantum Mechanics, therefore not the task for a common developer.

Peter Shor, from MIT, has developed one Quantum Algorithm (the “Factoring algorithm”) that led the Intel community to the verge of a nervous breakdown by rendering most encryption keys ineffective. Basically, while the most powerful standard computer would take hundreds of years of continuous processing to get there, if tomorrow any of us would have the chance of bringing home a Quantum Computer with the Factoring Algorithm embedded in a software piece, we could break any RSA encryption in a matter of seconds, making all the bank accounts or electronic transactions that we could “look at” absolutely transparent.

Lov Kumar Grover Ph.D. at Stanford and currently working at the Bell Laboratories developed a Database Query Quantum Algorithm that bears the uniqueness of being able to get the right information over a vast unstructured database over a few seconds. Like finding a needle in a colossal haystack within a few seconds.

  • Particle manipulation

The existing current Quantum Computers are technically only partial quantum, since they are able to use strings of electrons and not yet each electron individually. However, a Laboratory experiment in Australia’s South Wales University has recently been able to do so, therefore, maybe the next generation of Quantum Computers will.

Potential

All of this is something that is being developed “as we speak”.

In 2011 the development stage of Quantum Computers allowed the tremendous accomplishment of calculating in one single operation the expression 3*5=15. Yes, just that …

Now back then (in 2011), Dr. Michio Kaku, who is one of the brightest minds of our era, stated in an interview that it was not clear by when would we have the first operational and useful Quantum Computers.

Four years after, in 2015, D-Wave (a Canadian company that produces Quantum Computers), after having developed a Quantum Computer for Lockheed Martin (the company that amongst many other military assets produced the F-22 Raptor fighter jet), produced another one which resources are being shared by Google, NASA and USRA to perform calculations that normal computers (no matter how powerful they are), are not capable of accomplishing within a reasonable time frame (meaning less than 100 years working non-stop).

This last machine is being used (since 2015) for the purpose of:

  • Artificial Intelligence investigation and development
  • Development of new drugs
  • Autonomous machine navigation
  • Climate change modeling and predictions
  • Traffic control optimization
  • Linguistics

 

Building a Quantum Computer doesn’t mean a faster computer, yet a computer that is fundamentally different than a standard computer.

Doctor Dario Gil, Head of IBM Research

We are flabbergasted by the number of things standard computers are capable of solving and how fast they do it, yet there are several things they are either not capable of solving or it would take them so much time that it would bring us no benefit.

Can’t think of any?

Well, here are some:

M=p*q – If someone gives you a given number M which is the product of two unknown very large prime numbers (p and q) and asks you to find them, although there are only two prime numbers that meet the requirement this is extremely hard to accomplish and would require several sequential divisions by prime numbers until you get there. It is in fact so difficult that it is used as the basis for RSA encryption, remember from above?

By the way, the D-Wave machines are not yet at the maturity point which allows dealing with such extremely complex problems.

Highly advanced alloy leagues – molecules for when electron orbits overlap and while dealing with well-known simple elements, like Hydrogen and Oxygen it is very easy to determine the outcome of such combination H2O or water, if we use highly complex elements while attempting to create new materials, that requires tremendous computing power and trial and errors, because those molecular bonds depend on Quantum Mechanics.

The simplest example can mean 2 to the power of 80 combinations in need of being calculated to reach the solution that leads to a stable molecule, which would take years on a standard computer but just minutes in the current state of Quantum Computing capacity.

The most recent D-Wave computer was successfully used in 2016 by a joint team composed of participants from Google, Harvard University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, Tufts University, UCS Santa Barbara and University College of London to simulate a Hydrogen molecule. This opens the door for the accurate simulation of complex molecules which may result in exponentially faster achievements with much fewer expenditure achievements in the fields of medicine and new materials.

Logistics optimization – Logistic systems are some of the most complex days to day contexts that humans face which have a tremendous financial impact on the global economy. Let’s consider the example of DHL, this international corporation’s Core Business is based on getting a given physical asset from geography A to geography B within a time frame that its clients are expecting when hiring them. To accomplish that, the company has several “back to back” running services contracts with logistic operators, besides having its own fleet of planes, boats, and cars. Nevertheless, having the entire system optimized even under perfect conditions, where no strikes or natural disasters happen is hard enough because a one-minute delay at reaching a given traffic light may impact the 1-day delay in delivering the asset across the Globe. Quantum computing will allow, through data input from live monitoring sensors across the Globe, to constantly optimize routes and available cargo space, in a way that could easily represent a 600% profit increase over current operational standards or a significant price reduction towards clients, while assuring accurate and optimized delivery timings.

Predicting the future – ever watched “The Minority Report” with Tom Cruise? In the movie, although through a different process, computation was able to show what had over 90% probability to happen concerning potential crimes. Dealing with a complex scenario, the likes of an international crisis, it is “merely” a matter of computing power which can deal with an exponentially larger range of influencing co-factors that may affect the result. A standard computer would take years to reach the most probable outcome of such crisis, long after the crisis had been “naturally” solved, yet a Quantum Computer can show the top 5 most probable outcomes within a matter of minutes, therefore becoming a priceless decision support tool.

 

Artificial Intelligence – to begin with, let’s define Intelligence as the ability to acquire new knowledge and change one’s opinion based on such new information. Now The contribution of Quantum Computing to the potential of AI once again pertains speed and this time around “speed of thought”. How powerful would it be a “mind” that could analyze a complex scenario (like the above-mentioned logistics nightmare of a DHL alike company) and promptly decide which course of action to take and where to improve things in terms of processes by assessing that some established workflow is no longer suitable?

The problem would then be, having AIs making decisions and replacing them with new ones at a rate that humans had no time to understand the underlying motives, hence no saying in the approval/ disapproval of such strategic actions.

Safer communications – Quantum Cryptography, what is it?

We have seen that a Quantum Computer has the power to crack our state of the art current encryption pillars, but if it has the power to crack it, it has the power to create something better.

The problem of what we now can reach as methods of encrypting messages is that all of them depend on pre established keys, either unique or combinations of public and private keys and those keys are difficult to crack but only because of the methodology within reach of standard computers.

Now, Quantum Encryption cleverly exploits the initial problem of dealing with particles that behave like a wave until there is an attempt to observe them when they immediately behave like a particle.

Photons, if paired or entangled using the appropriate language, will each maintain their relative spin regardless of space or time, so four pairs of photons that transport each a status “01” conveyed by their spin, creating, therefore, a qubyte that is represented by “01010101” or any other combination for that matter, will maintain this “information” unaltered for as long as they are not “excited” and any attempt to read the code will immediately destroy it.

This bears the power of effectively creating unbreakable, full proof secure messaging.

P.S: This is a guest post published at the request of  Karl Crisostomo of tenfold.com and has reference to our earlier article titled “Section 65B interpretation in the Quantum Computing Scenario”

Naavi

 

 

Apr 18

3

In the wonderland of Quantum Cyber Law, Physics is part of Law specialization

Posted by Vijayashankar Na on April 3, 2018
Posted in Cyber Law  | Tagged With: , , , | No Comments yet, please leave one

Ever since Law entered Cyber space and the term “Cyber Law” was coined, the field of law has been shaken up.

When ITA 2000 (Information Technology Act 2000) was notified and conventional lawyers started reading it they soon encountered right under Section 3, terms such as “Asymmetric Crypto system” and “Hashing”. Immediately it was clear that their years of study of LLB and experience in the Bar was of little relevance in the new emerging world of “Cyber Law”.

At this point of time, a breed of “Cyber Law Specialists” were born who studied ITA 2000 from its birth and had no prior in depth knowledge on Civil or Criminal law. Gradually, many of the “Computer Savvy Lawyers” who could understand some computer terms such as hard disk, memory, hacking, denial of service etc graduated as “Cyber Law Specialists” with different degrees of specialization in civil or criminal law along with an awareness of computer technology.

Simultaneously, pure technology specialists working in the area of “Cyber Forensics” also graduated into a multi discipline specialization by acquiring awareness of ITA 2000 or Cyber Laws.

With this convergence of technology knowledge/specialization with law specialization/awareness was born a new breed of specialists who could describe themselves as “Techno Legal Specialists”.

In the Information Security domain, these specialists became “Techno Legal (TL)  Information Security Specialists”.

Some of these specialists like the undersigned recognized the importance of “Behaviour Science” in Information Security area just like in the case of “Criminology” and added the “Behaviour Science Specialization” to their forte to create a “Techno Legal Behavioural Science Specialization” to be used both for Cyber Criminology and Information Security.

We may recognize these developments as different generations of Cyber Law specializations that are developing not only in India but also elsewhere.

When we look at some of the emerging problems such as Section 65B of Indian Evidence Act and the struggle of the community to handle the Cyber Crimes emanating from the deep web, it is clear that we are still a long way off from mastering the art of “Techno Legal Behavioural Science (TLBS) Specialization” either in the Information Security area or in the Cyber Law area.

Failure to acquire this TLBS specialization in the Information Security domain results in increasing Cyber Crimes, data thefts etc including the Cyber Analytica kind of issues.

Failure to acquire this TLBS specialization in the Cyber Law domain results in increasing cases of bad Judgements such as the Section 66A and Shafhi Mohammad judgement by the Supreme Court of India or the Shapoorji Pallonji case judgement by Mumbai High Court.

Emerging Cyber Law Scenario

While there is a need to continue our work on creating better awareness and better understanding of the TL and TLBS concepts through our education system both in Law Education and in Engineering education and let it percolate through the practicing lawyers to the Judiciary, the environment has moved further with the advent of Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing making further changes to the interpretation of Cyber Law principles.

Just as Digital Signature concepts which included Asymmetric Crypto System and Hashing which are mathematical concepts into the domain of Cyber Law, the development of Quantum Computing has now brought “Physics” directly into the domain of Cyber Law.

Now a full rounded Cyber Lawyer needs to not only know law, computer technology and behavioural science, but also Physics.

We must remember that what we were calling as “Computer Technology” so far already incorporated “Physics” because every “Bit” that held the data in a computer device was actually a “Transistor” in miniature form and every processing on a computer happened with “Electronics” in the back end.

But just as “Classical Physics” was disrupted by “Quantum Physics” and the laws of Classical physics including the famous laws of Newton had to be re-written in the Quantum world and even the geniuses like Albert Einstein were proved wrong in parts in the Quantum Physics domain, all the current laws which we codify as “Cyber Laws” may need a complete re-look in the Quantum computing environment.

We must therefore recognize that the next generation of Cyber Law specialization is now here. I will call this the “Quantum Cyber Law Specialization”.

The Quantum Cyber Law (QuCL/QCL) specialists need to not only understand the depths of Law along with “Transistor based Classical Computers” but the emerging “Qubit based Quantum Computers” where the “Qubit” is not a transistor but a Nucleus or an Electron.

Just as the Classical Computer works on a transistor representing a “Bit” which can be either with a charge or no charge representing the binary states of one or zero, the Qubit represents an electron or a nucleus which is spinning either in the clockwise or anti clockwise direction representing the two states Zero or One.

The enigma of Quantum Computing however is the “Principle of Uncertainty” that a spin state of an electron can be one and zero at the same time but collapses into one of the two states at the time of measurement.

The readers of this blog consists mainly of Classical Cyber Law Followers. Some of them may find the concept of Quantum Computing a bundle of scientific fiction. They may have to chose to ignore some of the articles that may appear here on this “Emerging Technology” concepts and focus on improving their understanding of the “Transistor Based classical technology” and how it affects Section 65B etc .

But those crazy technology buffs who would like to explore the computer world of the future, it is necessary to slowly start grasping some of the new concepts to stay relevant in the post 2030 Cyber law world.

The undersigned is also in the process of exploring the Quantum Computing principles and is experimenting with some thoughts not all of which may be considered “Definitive”. Errors and mis-interpretation could be expected since this is considered as a learning process.

Readers may therefore treat some of these articles more as as hypothesis to be tested and tuned. The presented hypothesis may be debunked and improved. by Quantum Cyber Law (QuCL) watchers.

Understanding QuCL requires even more depth of technical knowledge than what is required for understanding Cyber Law as we know today.

Further the technical knowledge required for understanding QuCL would include the knowledge of Quantum Physics and its application to the creation of logic gateways and data store techniques which is more than what most computer science specialists possess in the natural course of their development.

I am yet to find a term to describe this “Multiple Domain Experts who know Computer Technology, Law and Physics”.

Probably they should be called “Techno Legal Physicists” or “Quantum Physics Technology Law Specialists” (QPTLS) and this specialization should be termed as Quantum Physics Techno logy law (QPTL) specialization.

Like many things in the life of Naavi, perhaps Naavi will be the first to describe himself as a Techno Legal Physicist or Quantum Physics Technology Law Specialist  (now in the process of graduation).

Even today, many of the lawyers ask me in a cross examination in a Court  “Where did you get your Cyber Law Degree” to make you an “Expert”. I normally reply that “In 1998 when I started studying Cyber Law and in 2000 when I started Cyber Law College, there was no other university or college which was qualified to give Cyber Law degrees (at least in India) and hence my Cyber Law specialization had to be and is self acquired”.

Similarly, now I have to say that the new specialization of “Techno Legal Physicist” or “Quantum Physics Technology Law Expert”  will have to be a self acquired skill which I will endeavour to acquire through self study.

With this, I have a message to the Cross examining lawyers who try to embarass me on a witness box with questions that I donot have a law degree or a computer science degree and cannot call myself as eligible to give evidence on computer aspects. They must remember that I have a Master’s degree in Physics with a specialization in nuclear physics itself that makes me eligible to talk on law that depends on transistors and quantum mechanics, as an expert.

However, I humbly submit that “Expertise” is a “Relative expression”. Knowledge is so huge that no person can call himself an “Expert”. One can be more an expert than the other in a given niche area and may be a novice at the same time in another aspect.

The description of an “Expert” under Section 45/45A of Indian Evidence Act has to absorb the “Quantum Principle” that a witness may be an “Expert” or a “Novice” at the same time and it is only when his knowledge is measured against a specific question that his “State” will collapse into either “Expert” or “Not an Expert”.

Next time when a cross examining lawyer asks me, “Are you an Expert?” “Do you know technology?” etc., I may answer, “I am an expert or a novice at the same time like a Qubit being in the state of one of zero at the same time. You try to pose a question and I may collapse into either being an expert or not”.

Problem however is that the Judge may immediately say.. Please donot argue with the counsel and put counter questions… answer Yes or No not Both…..

Practicing lawyers specialized with court procedures may kindly advise me what would be the correct answer to the question that witnesses cannot be in quantum state and say “Yes and No” but  have to be always in either “Yes” or “No” state.

In the wonderland of Quantum Cyber Law , a new specialization of Techno Legal Physics needs to be recognized to answer such questions.

Naavi

Mar 18

10

Quantum Computing and Emerging Cyber Law Challenges..Are we ready?

Posted by Vijayashankar Na on March 10, 2018
Posted in Cyber Law  | Tagged With: , , , , , , , , | No Comments yet, please leave one

Cyber Laws have been in discussion in India since around 1998 when the first draft was published. After the passage of Information Technology Act 2000, the laws came into existence and started affecting every one of our activities on computer including personal activities such as E Mails, Web activities, Mobile phone communication, etc as well as commercial activities such as  E banking, E Commerce, E Governance etc.

However after 20 years since the draft E Commerce Act 1998 was released by the Government of India, our Courts and Police as also the Lawyers are still struggling to understand and interpret the law. We therefore have difficulties in understanding Section 65B certification of electronic evidence, the legal implication of digital and e-sign, understanding certain crimes such as hacking,  the man in the browser attacks, Viruses, Trojans etc.

Indian judicial system however being an adversarial system, is capable of absorbing inadequate understanding and interpretation of law since the responsibility of the judge is to interpret evidence and arguments as presented by the parties. . At higher levels, Judiciary is comfortable with a state of inconsistency so that every judge takes his own decision based on what he understands of the law and leaves it to the higher judicial authority to correct mistakes if required.

This means, Garbage in Garbage out principle is applicable for our Judicial verdicts. This is acceptable to the Judicial system. But should it be also acceptable to the victims of bad judgements?…a point to ponder

In some strange way, being a country where citizens are tolerant of inefficiency and corruption in all affairs of the Government, Police and Judiciary, we simply shrug off a bad decision and move on.

But one thought comes across my mind when we observe some of the latest developments in technology around us.

First is the advent of  Big Data, Data Analytics, IoT, Artificial intelligence etc which are common discussion points today in the IT industry. We have been discussing what happens to the concept of “Privacy” when “Aadhar” is used as an Universal ID as if it is the biggest challenge before humanity. Silently however, Artificial Intelligence and humanoid robots have made their appearance which will create many new challenges to the Cyber Law makers and Cyber Law interpreters.

Some of the challenges in application of Cyber Law to the current technological developments have manifested in the domain of Banking and Finance. The debate on Block Chain technology Bitcoins, etc are issues that have presented the complications that the new technologies may be creating in the economic world. If a simple negligence in technology implementation in Banking such as not linking SWIFT messaging system to the CBS system, and providing access without robust security  in Banks can give raise to frauds worth thousand of crores and destabilize our economy and stock markets, we can imagine what kinds of upheavals may be caused in the society when the new technology developments such as Artifical Intelligence and humanoid robots take over key decision making process in say our Governance and Military operations.

Parellelly the manufacturing industry is also transforming itself into the Industry 4.0 state where Cyber Physical systems take over manufacturing processes with Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics supporting the back end decision making process. The manufacturing industry is much less Cyber Law aware than the Banking and IT industry and hence the legal implications of frauds as well as the probability of frauds and crimes occurring in the manufacturing sector is much higher than in the Banking and IT industries.

I therefore anticipate a higher level of problems in the Manufacturing industry in India when the IT professionals try to push through “Disruptive Innovations” unmindful of the “Destructive Impact” on the society.

The Information Security focus therefore needs to be re-directed to address the requirements of the manufacturing industry even while we tackle the issues in the IT and Banking/Finance domains.

The fact that even after 20 years of introduction of Cyber Laws in India, our Legal and Judicial system is yet to understand the law and implement it in a consistent manner makes me wonder, how the Cyber law creators and Cyber Law interpreters would react when the new developments such as “Quantum Computing” becomes a reality.

A few month’s back, I remember that one technologist did ask me in a meeting if Indian Cyber Law is ready to face the challenges posed by Quantum Computing. Though I did state that a “Proper Interpretation” of the current laws could help us interpret the laws whether the information is processed in a classic computer system where data is stored in “Binary” language or in Qubits where the data is stored or processed differently, considering the inability of the system to understand even the current system of laws, it appears as if my optimism may perhaps be misplaced.

For those who struggle to interpret an electronic document created as a sequence of binary interpretation of the state of a transistor, it would almost be impossible to even imagine that a “Transistor” will now be replaced by a “Quantum Energy State” which can take the uncertain  value  of one or zero or both. In such a situation if a hacker has manipulated the back end process and generated a fraudulent output, how do we recognize the “Unauthorized Manipulation of data”, “how do we produce forensic evidence of the manipulation” etc will be a challenge that is not easy to solve.

Add to this “Super positioning” prospect in Quantum computing to the “Entanglement” concept where two states of a data holder can be in physically separated but the state of one could be modified by changing the other, the problem becomes more fuzzy.

If nothing else is certain, the quantum increase in the computing powers of the future generation of computers (working as back end systems driven by quantum computing processing) would need a change in our perception of “Probability of a Cryptographic key being broken”. If the current key strengths become unreliable, we may need to re-think on many of the concepts of information security and make corresponding changes in out laws.

Even today, the Criminal Jurisprudence principle that all evidence should be “Proved  beyond Reasonable Doubt” poses huge challenges when applied to Electronic Evidence. In the Quantum computing era, such issues would be even more challenging.

If therefore we want to upgrade our Cyber Laws from the current state of Cyber Law 1.0 to the era of Artificial intelligence which could be Cyber Law 2.0 and subsequently to the era of  Quantum Computing which could be called Cyber Law 3.0, then our Cyber Law makers need to start acting today in understanding the problems that the new technologies will pose to our Judges who are now in the very initial stages of appreciating the current version of Cyber Law.

Will the Government understand the challenge that the emerging technology in Computer software and hardware will pose?… if so…. when? ….is the question that remains unanswered in my mind.

I welcome the view of the readers… if any

Naavi