'Blind' Quantum Computing Proposed For the Cloud

judgecorp writes "Researchers at Vienna's Quantum Science and Technology Center have proposed that 'blind' quantum computing could be carried out securely in the cloud. When (if?) quantum computers are developed, they will be very fast, but not everyone will have them. Blind quantum computing will be useful, because it shows that users can encode 'qubits' and send them to a shared quantum computer to be worked on — without the quantum computer having any knowledge of what the data is (abstract). The data also cannot be decoded form the qubit while it is in transit. It's good to know that quantum computers will be secure when they exist. At the moment, of course, they are even more secure, by virtue of their non-existence."

Comments

quantum hype

[Anonymous Coward]

Quantum computing is just a rather basic branch of computer science which seems to be winning all the hype in the world at the moment because there's not much sexy in terms of hard non-biological research with a practical slant.

I'm not quite sure how the output remains unknown to the computer. I know most cloud services either haven't or won't last long enough to give you all the output you were expecting to get for free/absurdly low cost, but I'd be very impressed with a computing system which is able to deliver you something without knowing it's delivered it.

Of course, there are various computations which can be performed partly by a separate processor without the initial input and final output being known by that separate processor, but there's nothing quantum-y about that.

Re:quantum hype

[Anonymous Coward]

As a physicist working in the field, let me correct two things:
Quantum computing is not a branch of computer science; it is not logic and mathematics. It is a branch of physics. It is also why you find it hard to believe that both the input and output is unknown to the quantum computer.

@OP: They do exists, just not in stores yet, a natural result of having unsatisfactory shape.. Try paying a visit to a QC laboratory.

Re:quantum hype

[marcosdumay]

There are some keywords at TFA that give a hint. The computer is "measurement based", what I'll understand as "the computer only does measurements", also, "without knowing the original states, nobody can decode the output".

Turns out that are infinite ways (normaly over a finite continuum space) to encode your original bits, and if your computer only does measurements, the answer will be encoded the same way you encoded the data. If the computer operators don't know your encoding, they won't be able to read your data.

The hard thing is getting those phothons already encoded through the world into the computer, and getting the results back. Also, the above assumes that you can't discover the encoding, but it doesn't survive known plaintext attacks.

Blah blah

[qqe0312]

I work in this line physics, which is really a lot of fun. But: The idea that a practical quantum computer will be around in the foreseeable future is jus plain silly. To worry how such a device would be integrated with the cloud is just absolutely bonkers. What a waste of time this all is.

Re:Blah blah

[ScrewMaster]

What a waste of time this all is.

Yoda ... is that you?

Whoa..quantum computer + Cloud!

[Anonymous Coward]

Must resist...want to invest...

We will get quantum computing...

[wbr1]

...the same time we get the following:

• Cold Fusion
• Flying Cars
• World Peace
• Intelligent Patent and Copyright laws
• An end to hunger
• A manned mission to Mars
• Hell, a manned mission to anywhere beyond LEO
• When samsaric existence ends and everyone attains Buddahood

Re:We will get quantum computing...

[tiffany352]

Don't forget Half-Life 3.