Honeywell goes quantum to protect utilities from future threats

Operational expertise specialist Honeywell is to incorporate quantum computing-hardened encryption keys into its good meters for electrical, gasoline and water meters, via a partnership with sector specialist Quantinuum that it mentioned will present shoppers with heightened safety from future cyber threats.

The deal makes Honeywell the primary to deploy quantum encryption in such a means, and the organisation hopes it should “set a new benchmark” in defending essential utilities, and their prospects, from cyber incidents, in addition to make sure the underlying infrastructure can perform with out interruption.

The partnership centres on Quantinuum’s Quantum Origin expertise, co-developed with Honeywell and launched again in 2021, which its developer claims is the world’s first industrial product constructed utilizing quantum computer systems that “delivers an outcome classical computers could not achieve”.

It’s a cloud-hosted cryptographic key era platform that derives keys utilizing the output of a quantum laptop to strive to guarantee information is protected at a foundational stage in opposition to present and future cyber assaults. This is held to be a bonus over extra conventional companies as a result of the approach renders the keys unpredictable.

“By integrating Quantinuum’s quantum computing-hardened encryption technology into our smart meters, we’re advancing data security for our customers and shaping the dialogue on how the utility industries should approach cyber security in the quantum era,” mentioned Hamed Heyhat, president of good vitality and thermal options at Honeywell.

“This integration underscores the necessity for continuous innovation to stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape,” he mentioned. “It’s a level of protection that is imperative in our increasingly digital and interconnected world.”

Tony Uttley, Quantinuum president and chief working officer, added: “Robust cyber security requires a multifaceted approach, taking advantage of the latest technologies. Our work with Honeywell demonstrates the importance of using the power of today’s quantum computers to create a more resilient cyber infrastructure to better protect customers.”

How to reply appropriately to the menace quantum computing poses to present cyber safety measures continues to train the trade.

However, because the tempo of innovation accelerates, it’s already abundantly clear that organisations working in sectors that are extra doubtless to be attacked, or on which an assault would trigger important disruption and even menace to life, such because the utilities that represent a core ingredient of a rustic’s essential nationwide infrastructure, ought to already be fascinated about the potential influence.

The quantum-enhanced good meter merchandise can be found now throughout Europe and North America.

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