{"id":19600,"date":"2020-07-09T07:55:08","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T07:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rbsitsoftwaresolution.com\/blog\/pqshield-raises-7m-for-quantum-ready-cryptographic-security-solutions.html"},"modified":"2020-07-09T07:55:08","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T07:55:08","slug":"pqshield-raises-7m-for-quantum-ready-cryptographic-security-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/pqshield-raises-7m-for-quantum-ready-cryptographic-security-solutions.html","title":{"rendered":"PQShield raises $7M for quantum-ready cryptographic security solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

A deep tech startup building cryptographic solutions to secure hardware, software, and communications systems for a future when quantum computers may render many current cybersecurity approaches useless<\/a>\u00a0is today emerging out of stealth mode with $7 million in funding and a mission to make cryptographic security something that cannot be hackable, even with the most sophisticated systems, by building systems today that will continue to be usable in a post-quantum future.<\/p>\n

PQShield<\/a>\u00a0(PQ being short for \u201cpost-quantum\u201d), a spin out from Oxford University, is being backed in a seed round led by Kindred Capital, with participation also\u00a0Crane Venture Partners, Oxford Sciences Innovation and various angel investors, including Andre Crawford-Brunt, Deutsche Bank\u2019s former global head of equities.<\/p>\n

PQShield was founded in 2018, and its time in stealth has not been in vain.<\/p>\n

The startup claims to have the\u00a0UK\u2019s highest concentration of cryptography PhDs outside academia and classified agencies, and it is one of the biggest\u00a0contributors to the NIST cybersecurity framework<\/a> (alongside academic institutions and huge tech companies), which is working on creating new cryptographic standards, which take into account the fact that quantum computing will likely make quick work of breaking down the standards that are currently in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scale is massive,\u201d Dr\u00a0Ali El Kaafarani, a research fellow at Oxford\u2019s Mathematical Institute and former engineer at Hewlett-Packard Labs, who is the founder and CEO of PQShield said of that project. \u201cFor the first time we are changing the whole of public key infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

And according to\u00a0El Kaafarani, the startup has customers \u2014 companies that build hardware and software services, or run communications systems that deal with sensitive information and run the biggest risks from being hacked.<\/p>\n

They include entities in the financial and government sectors that it\u2019s not naming, as well as its first OEM customer, Bosch. El Kaafarani said in an interview that it is also\u00a0in talks with at least one major communications and messaging provider exploring more security for end-to-end encryption on messaging networks. Other target applications could include\u00a0keyless cars, connected IoT devices, and cloud services.<\/p>\n

The gap in the market the PQShield is aiming to address is the fact that while there are already a number of companies exploring the cutting edge of cryptographic security in the market \u2014 they include large tech companies like Amazon<\/a> and Microsoft<\/a>,\u00a0Hub Security<\/a>, Duality<\/a>, another startup out of the UK focused on post-quantum cryptography called\u00a0Post Quantum<\/a>\u00a0and a number of others<\/a> \u2014 the concern is that quantum computing will be utilised to crack even the most sophisticated cryptography such as the\u00a0RSA and Elliptic Curve cryptographic standards.<\/p>\n

This has not been much of a threat so far since quantum computers are still not widely available and used<\/a>, but there have been a number of signs<\/a> of a breakthrough on the horizon.<\/p>\n

El Kaafarani says that PQShield is the first startup to approach that predicament with a multi-pronged solution aimed at a variety of use cases, including solutions that encompass current cryptographic standards and provide a migration path the next generation of how they will look \u2014 meaning, they can be commercially deployed today, even without quantum computers being a commercial reality, but in preparation for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever we encrypt now can be harvested, and once we have a fully functioning quantum computer people can use that to get back to the data and the sensitive information,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For hardware applications, it\u2019s designed\u00a0a System on Chip (SoC) solution that will be licensed to hardware manufacturers (Bosch being the first OEM). For software applications, there is an SDK that secures messaging and is protected by \u201cpost-quantum algorithms\u201d based on a secure, Signal-derived protocol.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thinking about and building for the full spectrum of applications is central to PQShield\u2019s approach, he added. \u201cIn security it\u2019s important to understand the whole ecosystem since everything is about connected components.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some sectors in the tech world have been especially negatively impacted by the coronavirus and its consequences, a predicament that has been exacerbated by uncertainties over the future of the global economy.<\/p>\n

I asked El Kaafarani if that translated to a particularly tricky time to raise money as a deep tech startup, given that deep tech companies so often work on long-term problems that may not have immediate commercial outcomes.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, he said that wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked to VCs that were\u00a0interested in deep tech to begin with, which made the discussion a lot easier,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the fact is that we\u2019re a security company, and that is one of the areas that is doing well. Everything has become digitised, and we have all\u00a0<\/span>become\u00a0more heavily reliant on our\u00a0<\/span>digital\u00a0connections. We ultimately help make the digital world more secure. There are people who understand that, and so it wasn\u2019t too difficult to talk to them and understand the importance of this company.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, Chrysanthos Chrysanthou, partner at Kindred Capital, echoed that sentiment:<\/p>\n

\u201cWith some of the brightest minds in cryptography, mathematics and engineering, and boasting world-class software and hardware solutions, PQShield is uniquely positioned to lead the charge in protecting businesses from one of the most profound threats to their future,\u201d he said. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t be happier to support the team as it works to set a new standard for information security and defuse risks resulting from the rise of quantum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunchIt\/~3\/WUP2h5crRxA\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A deep tech startup building cryptographic solutions to secure hardware, software, and communications systems for a future when quantum computers may render many current cybersecurity approaches useless\u00a0is today emerging out <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-19600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enterprise-software","tag-enterprise"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t