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Hearing Conclude: U.S. Must Update Technology to Prepare for the Quantum Age
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WASHINGTON-Yesterday, the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infotech, and Government Innovation held a hearing titled "Getting ready for the Quantum Age: When Cryptography Breaks." During the hearing members stressed the United States has an obligation to compete for technological supremacy and needs to update cybersecurity procedures to keep its one-upmanship. Members emphasized the federal government must update federal IT systems and upgrade cybersecurity procedures to secure Americans' information from possible hacks and breaches from hostile countries like China.

Key Takeaways:

The United States is contending for technological supremacy in many domains, consisting of quantum computing and expert system, and must continue innovating to maintain its lead.

- Marisol Cruz Cain, Director of Information Technology and Cybersecurity at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, affirmed in her opening statement that" [The] United States requires to establish a strong quantum labor force to keep its management position in quantum technology, hardware, and software development. In doing so, leveraging programs, training, and employing are crucial. For example, education programs might provide the credentials and skills needed to work in quantum innovations throughout both the public and economic sector. Second, the continual financial investment is especially important to advance these technologies. To do so, basic funding for research study and early development activities is important."

Quantum computing will substantially affect daily innovation and cybersecurity worldwide as nations develop the next generation of computer systems.

- Ms. Cruz Cain affirmed that "As you understand, quantum computer systems hold the pledge of resolving vital problems that conventional computers can not. These computers utilize the property of quantum physics to perform calculations considerably much faster than today's traditional computers. This enables them to perform significantly higher numbers of calculations in the very same quantity of time. This increased computing power has potential applications in lots of different fields. For example, quantum computers may be able to imitate vital chemistry procedures for establishing brand-new fertilizers and medications. However, the other hand of this potential is that quantum computer systems can threaten the security of details systems and the data they include, including those controlled by the federal government. For circumstances, quantum computers might beat commonly used encryption methods that individuals, federal firms, and important infrastructure entities depend on."

- Denis Mandich, Chief Technology Officer at Qrypt, testified that "The timeline is diminishing. The threshold is roughly 4 thousand sensible qubits, and leading programs are racing toward that mark currently. Delay is not simply dangerous, it's irrational. Progress in quantum computing is nonlinear and prone to sudden developments, and our adversaries have every reward to hide turning points up until it's too late. But the genuine risk isn't just in the quantum threat-it's our complacency. We've seen this pattern before. FLAME malware exploited weak cryptography several years back, lingering unnoticed for many years. Storm-0558 from China, you're most likely knowledgeable about, led to Microsoft's master signing key being taken, jeopardizing almost all federal agencies."

The federal government needs to make more progress towards improving federal IT systems and updating cybersecurity protocols.

- Subcommittee Chairwoman Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) mentioned in her opening statement that "An important role of this Subcommittee is to make sure appropriate cybersecurity of federal technology. Something all professionals settle on is an adequately sophisticated quantum computer system will upend cryptographic security in every sector consisting of finance, health care, and defense. The federal government must not wait to tackle this massive job. Already, we understand foreign foes are implementing a "take now, decrypt later" technique with the hope today's information will still be valuable when they have a quantum computer system.

- Dr. Scott Crowder, Vice President of IBM Quantum Adoption, affirmed in his opening statement that" [The] U.S. federal government and market must end up being quantum safe and quantum all set. If the industry continues to advance at the expected pace, quantum computers will have the ability to break uneven file encryption. [National Institute of Standards and Technology] has recommended existing file encryption vulnerable to quantum computers be disallowed by 2035, and previous experiences have actually shown broad adoption of new cryptography can take more than a decade. Thus, we need to act now. We must guarantee our nation's most vital systems are safe from hazard. Thankfully, this Committee has understood this need and has already begun acting. Congress can assist even more by supporting the passage of additional legislation that guarantees fast adoption of post-quantum cryptography and appropriating funds to support this transition."

Member Highlights:

Subcommittee Chairwoman Mace asked about China's quantum computing and expert system abilities compared to the United States and the risk it produces.

Subcommittee Chairwoman Mace: "How far behind do you believe China is from the U.S. on AI?"

Mr. Mandich: "I think it's another situation where I do think that simply, once again, having observed them for so long, they have access to whatever that we have actually every carried out in all of our companies. All of our business have actually been penetrated as far as we know. A lot of their workers remain in China. In many cases, those workers in fact physically work from remote places in Chinese intelligence firms, not even in the private sector. So I do feel that due to the fact that they're so peaceful about this, they're being really deceptive about what they're doing. We don't even understand the names of the quantum business in China. There's only a couple of them that are public, the rest of them are completely unidentified. We're likely going to experience a DeepSeek minute in quantum computing. There was no DeepSeek before ChatGPT 3, that turned up later on, and that came up very rapidly and that didn't take place from fundamental research study. It originated from information technology theft and IP money making."

Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) expressed issue about the connection between Chinese worldwide students at American universities and the increasing technological competitors between China and the U.S.

Rep. Crane:" [Mr. Mandich], you said you operated in the intelligence field for a very long time? Does it concern you that universities like Brown and others enable students to come here-sometimes they come here and state that they're [going to] start an English program-and then they work with perhaps a sympathetic professor who moves them into something like nuclear engineering or quantum computing, and after that they wind up taking on the United States?"

Mr. Mandich: "Well, you understand, we understand that China floods the United States with trainees. That's their frontline collection platforms. It floods not simply the university system, but almost every company you can consider with collectors. So, we need to do a much better task of restricting that because we have actually effectively trained their whole quantum market here in the United States. Very little of that took place domestically in China. So, we need to throw down the gauntlet, however we also need more Americans to get into these fields, and leave social media and TikTok, that we get to be the majority in these programs and not the minority."

Rep. John McGuire (R-Va.) asked about areas of U.S. quantum development most at threat of being overtaken by foreign enemies.

Rep. McGuire: "So, Dr. Crowder, what locations of U.S. quantum development are most at danger of being overtaken by a foreign adversary?"

Dr. Crowder: "I believe, there's once again, there's two pieces of it. One of them is developing the computer systems in the world. Maybe 3 things. Based upon public data, we believe we have a lead over any location else worldwide today, however that's just based on public data. The 2nd area remains in the algorithms and applications. And right now, I would say, we're seeing a bit more financial investment by other governments than by the U.S.