Controversial quantum company Arqit completes third-party tech review
Produced by Photon Box Research Institute
Back on April 18, The Wall Street Journal published an article titled “British crypto startup Arqit overstated its prospects, ex-employees and outsiders say.” The article mentions that "Arqit's flagship product is an early prototype that cannot encrypt anything in real life..."
At that time, Arqit had already responded. “This article in the Wall Street Journal today appears to be based solely on unsubstantiated outdated comments from two long-leaved and disgruntled former employees. When considering the capabilities and relevance of its products, Arqit wants to let customers and outcomes speak for themselves. , and look forward to the upcoming release in May."
But this response did not dispel the doubts. Since April 18, Arqit’s stock price has fallen by more than 50%. In order to "prove your innocence", on May 12, Arqit announced [1] that the "Independent Identification Report" by the University of Surrey on Arqit's technical protocol for implementing symmetric key agreement on classic IP network infrastructure has been completed . The report confirms the security proof of Arqit's client terminal symmetric key agreement software, which creates zero-trust and computationally secure keys.
The University of Surrey is recognised by the UK Government's National Cyber Security Centre as an "Academic Centre of Excellence for Cyber Security Research". This independently authenticated review builds on a technical review by the University of Surrey, using the well-established Tamarin cryptography modelling tool (a secure protocol verification tool that supports falsification and unbounded verification in symbolic models) to verify basic The Mathematical Basis of Key Establishment Protocols: The report outlines the merits behind the academic analysis of the Tamarin method and provides a higher-level explanation of the detailed findings.
The report shows that Arqit's protocol framework specification is related to Arqit's quantum-secure enterprise communications solutions. The formal mathematical model of the protocol framework has been tested by a recognized non-boundary symbolic protocol verifier, the Tamarin verifier. We (University of Surrey) consider Tamarin to be the tool of choice in the industry, with a proven pedigree in verifying the robustness of encryption protocols that provide communication security on all modern websites. Formal tests have successfully shown that protocols maintain their expected security properties in a symbolic model and against our best estimate of their threat model.
Specific executive summaries include:
1) PA Consulting was commissioned by Arqit to provide an independent technical review of three encryption key establishment protocols designed to connect computing devices and cloud services. We (University of Surrey) call these the Arqit Protocol Framework.
2) Tamarin proofs reflect the security of the design principles and demonstrate the robustness of the protocol mathematics.
3) These findings lead us (University of Surrey) to believe that the core protocols that define the security cornerstones for connecting computing devices to the cloud will achieve their stated security goals.
Professor Steve Schneider, Director of the Centre for Cyber Security at the University of Surrey, said: "We are delighted to validate the security proof of the Arqit design, which we found to be excellent. The technology represents a significant advance in the field of secure communications."
Arqit CEO David Williams commented: "Completing the independent review and verification of our security proof is an extremely important moment, demonstrating our software's ability to deliver the benefits described."
“At the same time, this independent appraisal review is also very timely, as the White House issued a National Security Memorandum last week covering quantum security recommending that agencies upgrade to symmetric key encryption, which is exactly what Arqit has done. Our Keys generated by key agreement software are used in symmetric key algorithms that are standardized and widely used around the world - the innovation of QuantumCloud™ is the way the keys are created at scale at the endpoint. We have prepared To solve the problems of traditional encryption, and to enter the market in cooperation with many other companies, this week showed that our product can be easily integrated with the products of the suppliers [2].”
Independent appraisal report:
https://arqit-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/v1652259473/WhitePapers/Independent_Assurance_Review_of_Arqits_Technology_delzyb.pdf
Reference link:
[1] https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/05/11/2440733/0/en/Arqit-Quantum-Inc-Announces-Independent-Assurance-Report-on-its-Technology.html
[2] www.arqit.uk/news/in-the-news/
