Local quantum tech start-up aims to make critical info systems unhackable

With a $3 million funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF) and after six years of tinkering in the depths of a laboratory, a homegrown startup is ready to launch services that can protect critical information systems in a way that makes them almost unhackable.

- Sarah Koh

Squareroot8 Technologies chief executive officer Cristofer Quek (at right) and chief technology officer and co-founder Goh Koon Tong with their chip-based Quantum Random Number Generator at their launch event held at ALICE @ Mediopolis on Sept 26. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO

(GAVIN FOO)

Squareroot8 Technologies, a spin-off from the National University of Singapore, is in talks to test its quantum cryptography technology with undisclosed firms in the healthcare, defence and finance sectors here.

Its newly launched product, dubbed the Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG), uses algorithms that take advantage of the inherent randomness of quantum mechanics to encrypt data.

The result: a string of numbers so random that it is impossible for hackers to guess the sequence to decrypt the protected data.

“We use random numbers in our everyday life. They are used to encrypt video calls or communications on our mobile phones,” said Squareroot8 Technologies co-founder and chief technology officer Goh Koon Tong.

“The higher the randomness, the more secure the encryption is,” he said.

Unlike QRNG, current encryption methods often rely on the difficulty of mathematical problems to keep data safe, said Dr Goh.

But these mathematical problems, or algorithms, are predictable. As such, current encryption methods are vulnerable to quantum computers.