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Hearing Wrap Up: U.S. Must to Get Ready For the Quantum Age

WASHINGTON-Yesterday, the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infotech, and Government Innovation held a hearing entitled "Preparing for the Quantum Age: When Cryptography Breaks." During the hearing members highlighted the United States has a responsibility to contend for technological dominance and must update cybersecurity procedures to keep its one-upmanship. Members emphasized the federal government should update federal IT systems and upgrade cybersecurity procedures to safeguard Americans' data from potential hacks and breaches from hostile nations like China.

Key Takeaways:

The United States is competing for technological supremacy in many domains, including quantum computing and expert system, and must continue innovating to preserve 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 needs to establish a strong quantum workforce to keep its leadership position in quantum technology, hardware, and software application advancement. In doing so, leveraging programs, training, and employing are essential. For example, education programs might supply the credentials and skills required to operate in quantum innovations across both the public and private sector. Second, the sustained investment is especially crucial to advance these innovations. To do so, basic financing for research study and early advancement activities is vital."

Quantum computing will considerably affect everyday technology and cybersecurity worldwide as countries develop the next generation of computer systems.
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- Ms. Cruz Cain affirmed that "As you know, quantum computers hold the guarantee of resolving important issues that traditional computers can not. These computer systems use the property of quantum physics to perform computations considerably much faster than today's standard computer systems. This enables them to perform substantially higher numbers of estimations in the same quantity of time. This increased computing power has prospective applications in various fields. For example, quantum computer systems may have the ability to mimic vital chemistry processes for establishing brand-new fertilizers and medications. However, the flip side of this capacity is that quantum computer systems can threaten the security of information technology systems and the data they contain, including those managed by the federal government. For example, quantum computers could beat commonly utilized file encryption approaches that individuals, federal agencies, and critical infrastructure entities depend on."

- Denis Mandich, Chief Technology Officer at Qrypt, testified that "The timeline is shrinking. The limit is roughly 4 thousand rational qubits, and leading programs are racing toward that mark currently. Delay is not just dangerous, it's irrational. Progress in quantum computing is nonlinear and vulnerable to unexpected breakthroughs, and our foes have every reward to hide turning points until it's too late. But the genuine danger isn't just in the quantum threat-it's our complacency. We've seen this pattern before. FLAME malware made use of weak cryptography several years ago, lingering undetected for many years. Storm-0558 from China, you're most likely acquainted with, led to Microsoft's master finalizing key being stolen, jeopardizing almost all federal agencies."

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

- Subcommittee Chairwoman Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) remarked in her opening statement that "A crucial role of this Subcommittee is to guarantee proper cybersecurity of federal technology. Something all experts agree on is an adequately innovative quantum computer will upend cryptographic security in every sector including financing, healthcare, and defense. The federal government must not wait to tackle this huge task. Already, we understand foreign enemies are implementing a "steal now, decrypt later on" technique with the hope today's data will still be valuable when they have a quantum computer system.

- Dr. Scott Crowder, Vice President of IBM Quantum Adoption, affirmed in his opening declaration that" [The] U.S. federal government and market need to end up being quantum safe and quantum ready. If the market continues to advance at the expected pace, quantum computers will have the ability to break asymmetric encryption. [National Institute of Standards and Technology] has suggested existing encryption vulnerable to quantum computer systems be prohibited by 2035, and previous experiences have actually revealed broad adoption of brand-new cryptography can take more than a years. Thus, we need to act now. We need to guarantee our nation's most crucial systems are safe from hazard. Thankfully, this Committee has actually realized this need and has already started acting. Congress can assist further by supporting the passage of extra legislation that guarantees rapid adoption of post-quantum cryptography and appropriating funds to support this transition."

Member Highlights:

Subcommittee Chairwoman Mace asked about China's quantum computing and artificial intelligence abilities compared to the United States and the threat it creates.

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

Mr. Mandich: "I believe it's another scenario where I do believe that just, once again, having actually observed them for so long, they have access to everything that we've every performed in all of our companies. All of our business have been permeated as far as we know. Many of their workers are in China. In most cases, those employees in fact physically work from remote locations in Chinese intelligence companies, not even in the economic sector. So I do feel that due to the fact that they're so peaceful about this, they're being extremely secretive about what they're doing. We do not even understand the names of the quantum companies in China. There's just a number of them that are public, the rest of them are totally unidentified. We're likely going to experience a DeepSeek moment in quantum computing. There was no DeepSeek before ChatGPT 3, that came up later on, which turned up very rapidly and that didn't occur from basic research. It originated from data theft and IP monetization."

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

Rep. Crane:" [Mr. Mandich], you said you worked in the intelligence field for a long period of time? Does it issue you that universities like Brown and others allow trainees to come here-sometimes they come here and say that they're [going to] start an English program-and then they work with maybe a supportive teacher who moves them into something like nuclear engineering or quantum computing, and then they end up contending with the United States?"

Mr. Mandich: "Well, you know, we understand that China floods the United States with students. That's their frontline collection platforms. It floods not simply the university system, but almost every company you can think about with collectors. So, we need to do a better task of restricting that because we've successfully trained their entire quantum market here in the United States. Very little of that occurred domestically in China. So, we need to throw down the gauntlet, however we likewise need more Americans to enter these fields, and leave social networks and TikTok, that we get to be the bulk in these programs and not the minority."

Rep. John McGuire (R-Va.) inquired about locations of U.S. quantum innovation most at risk of being overtaken by foreign adversaries.
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Rep. McGuire: "So, Dr. Crowder, what areas of U.S. quantum innovation are most at danger of being surpassed by a foreign foe?"

Dr. Crowder: "I think, there's again, there's two pieces of it. Among them is building the finest quantum computer systems on the world. Maybe three things. Based upon public information technology, we think we have a lead over any location else on the planet today, but that's just based upon public data. The second location remains in the algorithms and applications. And today, I would say, we're seeing a bit more investment by other governments than by the U.S.