SandboxAQ CEO Jack Hidary Shares New Insights into Cybersecurity on Inside Quantum Technology’s New Podcast
SandboxAQ is one of the leading quantum computing companies when it comes to quantum-focused cybersecurity. Currently, they are one of only 12 companies NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) picked as collaborators for the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. Leading SandboxAQ is CEO Jack Hidary, who has been fascinated by quantum computing for many years. In a new episode from Inside Quantum Technology’s Quantum Tech Pod podcast, Hidary shared many insights about quantum-focused cybersecurity with host Christopher Bishop, as well as his plans for speaking at Davos, Switzerland as part of the 2023 World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting.
Looking further into CyberSecurity
“I think what’s happening in cyber now is absolutely fascinating,” explained Hidary in the podcast. “Cyber continues to be a battlefield literally on the global stage. And we see that playing out now.” As a company focused on cybersecurity, SandboxAQ is looking at different ways that quantum computing can be used to safeguard cybersecurity, preparing for the post-quantum phase when more sensitive digital files and other data resources could be threatened. With many of his staff having a background in security and government work, as well as relationships within the U.S. government, SandboxAQ is in the best position to have a large impact on the future of quantum-safe cybersecurity. In order to get to the next level of digital security, the current levels have to be evaluated. “Unfortunately, as the listeners may know, these [current] types of encryption protocols will be broken by scaled quantum computers,” Hidary stated in the podcast. “And so it is time now for the transition. When we go and work with banks and governments and telcos and other large key pieces of our societal infrastructure, we find that they’re still using MD5 and SHA-1 [older cybersecurity infrastructures]. And these are protocols that were broken more than 10 years ago, not by quantum computers, but by a laptop. So it is really critical that we start to scan and relook at all the encryption we’re using in our large companies and governments, as well as personally on our phones.”
How Cybersecurity is creating a Global Divide
Having years of working in cybersecurity and continuing to research it, Hidary is now taking a new angle on this topic for his upcoming talk at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Hidary will be discussing “the Digital Divide,” that AI and quantum are creating. In the age of the Internet, the digital divide reshaped the world order between Internet-enabled countries and companies and those slow to onboard. Hidary believes that a similar process will happen with quantum computing and AI, of which cybersecurity is a component of both these technologies. For countries lacking in quantum computing, they may be more prone to cyber-attacks which could be devastating for any future digital infrastructure developments. Hidary is one of four speakers discussing the digital divide in Davos, the others being Colin Bell, the CEO of HSBC Bank, Jim Breyer of Breyer Capital, and Arunima Sarkar, AI Lead at World Economic Forum.
To learn more about Hidary’s views on quantum computing and cybersecurity, listen to the newest episode of Quantum Tech Pod.
Kenna Hughes-Castleberry is a staff writer at Inside Quantum Technology and the Science Communicator at JILA (a partnership between the University of Colorado Boulder and NIST). Her writing beats include deep tech, the metaverse, and quantum technology.
