International team of scientists achieves secure “cloud” computing with quantum computers

A team of scientists, including CIFAR Junior Fellow Anne Broadbent, have demonstrated that “blind quantum computing” is now possible. An experiment published in the latest issue of Science, showed that quantum computation could occur and keep the input, data processing and output unknown to the quantum computer.


With the use of light particles, the scientists were able to send data to a quantum computer, have the computer solve the computation and then send the data back, all without revealing the information being transmitted. This proved that quantum computers could perform calculations required of a user remotely, but have no means to find out what it is actually doing. Everything would remain perfectly encrypted - a level of security not achievable in the current world of classical computing.

Quantum computers are considered the next generation in high performance computing, able to solve complicated problems deemed impossible for classical computers. In present day, large scale data storage and data processing is handled through remote centres of supercomputers. Everything is performed in a “cloud”, but the challenge to date has been ensuring that a users’ data stays private.

These findings are an exciting breakthrough for scientists hoping to achieve secure and global quantum computing.
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