Ashwini Vaishnaw invites ethical hackers to break India’s first quantum communication network

Ashwini Vaishnaw

While announcing that India's first quantum computing-based communication network is operational between two government departments in Delhi, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has launched a hackathon that will award ethical hackers Rs 10 lakh to break the encryption.

"About seven months back we decided to throw a challenge before the public and private sector and the first quantum key distribution (QKD) standards were released. We decided we will do a pilot. A small pilot was taken up between Sanchar Bhawan and CGO complex," he said.

"We are also launching a hackathon, a challenge round, for anybody who breaks this system and system developed by C-DoT, we will be giving Rs 10 lakh per break," he added.

While speaking at the first international quantum conclave, the minister said that C-DOT will be given more funds to work on quantum computing systems and will become the nodal organisation for the novel technology. He said that the organisation had been instrumental in the 90s in becoming a key part of India's telecommunication journey, but then was allowed to dither.

"In the last eight years, C-DOT has been revived to a great extent and has made many advances in 4G and 5G technology. We have built a public-private partnership model where C-DOT develops the core of a new technology for the country and the industry and entrepreneurs and add more layers on top of it," he said.

According to a presentation made by a senior DRDO official at the conclave, more than $30 billion has already been invested globally in the novel technology and that wars of the future will be fought on the quantum front.

While sizeable quantum computers do not yet exist, the fear among governments and the industry is that it will be a Y2K moment once the technology comes to life.

"We are already calling it a Q2K moment. There won't be any time to respond the day a quantum computer starts breaking large encryptions within a matter of seconds and all our data will be at risk," said an engineer at a Bengaluru-based quantum technology startup.

A senior telecom ministry official said that the government has created several task forces to align all quantum computing efforts within the country while another promised that funding will not be a problem for any start-up or research institution which develops quantum computing products.

Vaishnaw inaugurated a small exhibition of quantum computing firms and invited them to run pilot projects for communications networks and Indian Railways.

Quantum technologies are an emerging field with numerous path-breaking applications in the area of communications, computing, sensing etc. Quantum computers, once built, are expected to break the security of all existing digital technologies.

Indian companies are building solutions around quantum using mathematical models as well as software through simulations.

State-owned research organisation C-DoT has developed solutions for Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) or quantum cryptography and Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) - a segment which deals in developing solutions that can stay safe both in quantum and classical computing environment.

The hackathon announced by the minister will help in discovering vulnerabilities in QKD as well as PQC solutions that will further strengthen the quantum ecosystem in India.