quantum computing

44 Articles

36C3: Build Your Own Quantum Computer At Home

December 30, 2019 by 20 Comments

In any normal situation, if you’d read an article that about building your own quantum computer, a fully understandable and natural reaction would be to call it clickbaity poppycock. But an event like the Chaos Communication Congress is anything but a normal situation, and you never know who will show up and what background they will come from. A case in point: security veteran [Yann Allain] who is in fact building his own quantum computer in his garage.

Starting with an introduction to quantum computing itself, and what makes it so powerful also in the context of security, [Yann] continues to tell about his journey of building a quantum computer on his own. His goal was to build a stable computer he could “easily” create by himself in his garage, which will work at room temperature, using trapped ion technology. After a few iterations, he eventually created a prototype with KiCad that he cut into an empty ceramic chip carrier with a hobbyist CNC router, which will survive when placed in a vacuum chamber. While he is still working on a DIY laser system, he feels confident to be on the right track, and his estimate is that his prototype will achieve 10-15 qubits with a single ion trap, aiming to chain several ion traps later on.

As quantum computing is often depicted as cryptography’s doomsday device, it’s of course of concern that someone might just build one in their garage, but in order to improve future cryptographic systems, it also requires to fully understand — also on a practical level — quantum computing itself. Whether you want to replicate one yourself, at a rough cost of “below 15k Euro so far” is of course a different story, but who knows, maybe [Yann] might become the Josef Prusa of quantum computers one day.

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This Week In Security: Is RSA Finally Broken? The Push For Cloud Accounts, Encrypted DNS, And More Mobile Mayhem

October 4, 2019 by 24 Comments

Ever wondered what “cyberwar” looks like? Apparently it’s a lot of guessing security questions and changing passwords. It’s an interesting read on its own, but there are some interesting clues if you read between the lines. A General in the know mentioned that Isis:

clicked on something or they did something that then allowed us to gain control and then start to move.

This sounds very similar to stories we’ve covered in the past, where 0-days are used to compromise groups or individuals. Perhaps the NSA supplied such an exploit, and it was sent in a phishing attack. Through various means, the U.S. team quietly compromised systems and collected credentials.

The article mentions something else interesting. Apparently the targets of this digital sting had also been compromising machines around the world, and using those machines to manage their efforts. The decision was made by the U.S. team to also compromise those machines, in order to lock out the Isis team. This might be the most controversial element of the story. Security researchers have wanted permission to do this for years. How should the third parties view these incursions?

The third element that I found particularly interesting was the phase 2 attack. Rather than outright delete, ban, and break Isis devices and accounts, the U.S. team installed persistent malware that emulated innocuous glitches. The internet connection is extremely laggy on certain days, certain websites simply don’t connect, and other problems. These are the sort of gremlins that networking pros spend all day trying to troubleshoot. The idea that it’s intentional gives me one more thing to worry about. Continue reading “This Week In Security: Is RSA Finally Broken? The Push For Cloud Accounts, Encrypted DNS, And More Mobile Mayhem” →

Schrodinger’s Cat Lives

June 10, 2019 by 31 Comments

If quantum physics always sounded a little squirrelly to you, take heart. Yale researchers have announced that they can do what quantum physics claimed to be impossible: they can determine the state a quantum system will collapse to before it happens. This contradicts Schrodinger’s famous hypothetical cat that is superimposed as 50% alive and 50% dead at the same time. The research appears in Nature.

Schrodinger argued that until you open the box, the cat is half alive and half dead in the same way that a qubit can be in 50% of one state or another. When you observe it, you force the system to one state. Researchers at Yale, however, have found a way to use microwaves to indirectly monitor qubits to determine their state prior to the system making a jump. Unlike a normal observation which occurs too late, the Yale technique allows researchers to change the future state to their choice.

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Quantum Computing With QISKit

April 2, 2019 by 3 Comments

We all know that quantum computing is coming, but it is hard to know how to get started with it. [Mtreinish] suggests Qiskit — an Apache Licensed SDK for developing quantum applications. He has a presentation he gave in Singapore that you can see below, and a notebook you can go through on GitHub. If you are impatient, you can even run the notebook online through Google.

The tools can work against several backends including a simulator or the real hardware available from IBM. The official site has a different notebook you can use as a tutorial. Interestingly, the foundation of all Qiskit programs is “Terra” (the Earth) and permeating all Qiskit elements is Aer or air. There are also fire and water elements. At the bottom of the official notebook, you’ll find a lot of community notebooks that go deeper into specific topics.

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Door Springs And Neopixels Demonstrate Quantum Computing Principles

March 6, 2019 by 7 Comments

They may be out of style now, and something of a choking hazard for toddlers, but there’s no denying that spring doorstops make a great sound when they’re “plucked” by a foot as you walk by. Sure, maybe not on a 2:00 AM bathroom break when the rest of the house is sleeping, but certainly when used as sensors in this interactive light show.

The idea behind [Robin Baumgarten]’s “Quantum Garden” is clear from the first video below: engaging people through touch, sound, and light. Each of the 228 springs, surrounded by a Neopixel ring, is connected to one of the 12 inputs on an MPR121 capacitive touch sensor. The touch sensors and an accelerometer in the base detect which spring is sproinging and send that information to a pair of Teensies. A PC then runs the simulations that determine how the lights will react. The display is actually capable of some pretty complex responses, including full-on games. But the most interesting modes demonstrate principles of quantum computing, specifically stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP), which describes transfers between quantum states. While the kids in the first video were a great stress test, the second video shows the display under less stimulation and gives a better idea of how it works.

We like this because it uses a simple mechanism of springs to demonstrate difficult quantum concepts in an engaging way. If you need more background on quantum computing, [Al Williams] has been covering the field for a while. Need the basics? Check out [Will Sweatman]’s primer.

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Quantum Computing For Computer Scientists

July 13, 2018 by 16 Comments

Quantum computing is coming, so a lot of people are trying to articulate why we want it and how it works. Most of the explanations are either hardcore physics talking about spin and entanglement, or very breezy and handwaving which can be useful to get a little understanding but isn’t useful for applying the technology. Microsoft Research has a video that attempts to hit that spot in the middle — practical information for people who currently work with traditional computers. You can see the video below.

The video starts with basics you’d get from most videos talking about vector representation and operations. You have to get through about 17 minutes of that sort of thing until you get into qubits. If you glaze over on math, listen to the “index array” explanations [Andrew] gives after the math and you’ll be happier.

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Flawed Synthetic Diamonds May Be Key For Quantum Computing

July 10, 2018 by 8 Comments

If you’ve followed any of our coverage of quantum computing, you probably know that the biggest challenge is getting quantum states to last very long, especially when moving them around. Researchers at Princeton may have solved this problem as they demonstrate storing qubits in a lab-created diamond. The actual publication is behind a paywall if you want to learn even more.

Generally, qubits are handled as photons and moved in optical fibers. However, they don’t last long in that state and it is difficult to store photons with correct quantum information. The impurities in diamonds though may have the ability to transfer a photon to an electron and back.

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