ISSN 2348-1196 (print) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology Research ISSN 2348-120X (online) Vol. 10, Issue 2, pp: (21-34), Month: April - June 2022, Available at: www.researchpublish.com
Post-Quantum Computing Technologies Intensifying Nation State Conflict: An Analysis of Quantum Based Cybersecurity Innovations and Adoptions Andrew Vance1 1
Senior Researcher, Cyber Institute, Center for Cyber Risk Research & Policy, New York, NY 10003
1
Doctoral Candidate, Capitol Technology University, Quantum Computing Department, Washington D.C., 20708 Published Date: 08-April-2022
Abstract: Emerging technologies are principal factors facilitating the predicted transformative changes that the Fourth Industrial Revolution is anticipated to generate during the 21st Century. Quantum computing is an emerging technology accelerating and necessitating innovations in cybersecurity. This quantitative and qualitive research analyzed current innovations involving quantum-computing-based cybersecurity and their implications for national security. We reviewed relevant post-quantum schemes against current technologies, emerging technologies, and standards; our evaluation derived the characteristics of those schemes towards their potential impact on the global community. The study further examined how quantum superiority has introduced a quantum arms race among nations seeking supremacy and how it intensifies the probability of nation-state conflict. Our findings and recommendations revealed an alarming research and adoption gap between quantum-computingbased cybersecurity and other quantum research. The research’s resulting recommendations identify apposite approaches for addressing national and international conflict. Keywords: Cybersecurity, Emerging Technologies, National Security, Post-Quantum, Quantum Computing.
I. INTRODUCTION Technology, whether analog or digital, has always been and will always be a critical factor in geopolitical change. In the 21st Century, emerging technology is a principal factor in the “fourth industrial revolution” [1],[2]. It will provoke a change in the global order by challenging the authority, sovereignty, and capacity of governments. This transformation of geopolitical influence influences a range of government responses, each embedded in a nation‟s specific political structure, relative economic strength, and broader global ambitions. The emerging technologies developed in the fourth industrial revolution will force dominant governments to acknowledge and adapt to the realization that they may no longer be able to exert their superpower status and influence on the global stage. A specific emerging technology is poised to intensify nation-state conflict, quantum computing. Nation states achieving quantum supremacy, are envisaged to be considered „cyber superpowers‟ analogous to the nuclear superpowers of the cold war [3]. Contemporary computers are designed and built by means of classical Newtonian mechanics [4]; future computers will be designed and built using quantum mechanics [5]. A contemporary computer, known also as a classical computer, processes data using the limited binary states of either a one or zero. Classical computers store data in those binary states as a binary digit or bit for short. Quantum computers store data in a quantum bit, or qubit for short is equivalent to the classical computer‟s bit. Except quantum computers process data using limitless states by exploiting the superposition principle, a fundamental feature of quantum mechanics. The superposition principle permits the storage of information as continuous variables rather than discrete, binary variables. Classical computers can only store data in 0s and 1s, and all the calculations they perform are effectively combinations of 0s and 1s. Quantum computers can store data as a
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