The transition to a computing model based on quantum computers it involves great challenges and great risks, but also great opportunities. cryptography is one of those areas that will be changed by the progress in the development of quantum computers, but this has also interesting implications in terms of opportunities. Toshiba is aware of this and has revealed how it intends to bring its division dedicated to quantum cryptography services to invoice $ 3 billion by 2030 thanks also to the collaboration with the US Verizon and with the British BT Group .

Toshiba aims to invoice $ 3 billion by 2030 thanks to quantum cryptography

The quantum computer under development in Intel’s labs

The ups and downs of the economy and the strong uncertainties forced Toshiba to revise its plans, ending the notebook division last August (sold to Sharp and now under the name of Dynabook) and operations in the TV market in March 2019. The company would therefore like, according to Reuters , find a source of income that is more resistant to market unexpected events consumer and would have identified one in quantum cryptography.

To be more specific, the company would be specializing in a sector called quantum key distribution or QKD for short (in Italian “quantum key distribution”). It is a method for distributing cryptographic keys created from quantum states of a system; these keys, being of a quantum nature, allow to detect interception attempts by third parties since the measurement act necessary to read the information would change their quantum state and would therefore be detectable.

This approach has an intrinsic advantage over the high security systems adopted today: it is automated, fast and does not require human intervention. As a yardstick, communication between the National Composites Center (NCC) and the Center for Modeling and Simulation (CFMS) in Bristol, UK, takes place through the physical movement of data contained on storage devices. Toshiba has partnered with BT to replace this system with a quantum one, capable of generating keys believed to be secure and impossible to tamper with using traditional computers.

Toshiba expects the global QKD market arrive at 12 billions of dollars within the next ten years and that a significant portion in China, where the government is pointing