Mathematics – Stemify News

Beyond End-To-End: unveiling the Quantum threat to Encryption

Computer Science, Editors Pick, Mathematics, Must Read, Technology / By Ahmed Aldeeb

If you’ve ever used Whatsapp or Instagram to communicate with friends and family, you’d notice that the messages are “end-to-end encrypted”. Upon first notice, it sounds great. All your messages are safe and secure – you’d think.

However, not every encryption method is created equal, and with the rise of cyberattacks and more sophisticated technology especially in the Quantum field, one must exercise caution when choosing the right tools to use. But to better understand the scale of this issue we must first address the mathematical operation that makes such risk feasible in the first place.

Shor’s algorithm poses a major threat to security provided by current industry-standard encryption methods like RSA and ECC which rely on the difficulty of factoring large integers for security. However this difficulty is limited to the classical world of computing, where operations would be trialed one by one until a solution is found (exponential time) making it almost impossible to decipher such encryption methods. On the other hand, a Quantum computer is able to simultaneously compute all the possible trials in a single iteration due to it being in a superposition of exponentially many states – achieving rapid polynomial time. In simpler terms, many of the “asymmetric” encryption methods are at risk.

Evidently, this causes a domino effect on Symmetric encryption methods, since most Symmetric keys are exchanged between users through an asymmetric exchange process, which could be compromised by Shor’s algorithm allowing potential decryption of all data encrypted with that key: including your texts and photos.

Whilst this threat isn’t currently feasible for ordinary individuals — since Quantum Computers are costly, sophisticated pieces of technology – many countries and researchers are becoming increasingly aware of its uses and have created their own. Evidently, there is an imminent risk that Quantum threats may have the potential to escalate cyberattacks and transform the digital landscape as we know it.

Moreover, some authorities and individuals are adopting a technique called “Harvest Now, Decrypt Later”: accumulating databases of encrypted information. In hopes, it could one day be decrypted with sufficiently powerful quantum computers.

Evidently, many companies and researchers (including NIST) have taken measures to enhance encryption methods and implement Quantum safe or secure encryption in their communication protocols. One example, is the open-source messaging platform signal, which introduced the new PQXDH encryption protocol that claims to be quantum resistant to current advancements in the field of encryption: however, they claim that such technology must be upgraded as future findings and vulnerabilities may require additional security adjustments. If you wish to, the whitepaper for the encryption method can be accessed here.

Conclusion

Finally, we realised that such advancements pose a monumental risk to information security. Although it’s easy to be pessimistic about such advancements, I believe that it’s a step in the right direction towards safeguarding our digital security and communication. Therefore, as individuals and organisations alike we must take proactive measures:

Stay Informed: Keep abreast of developments in quantum computing and its implications for encryption. Awareness is key to making informed choices.
Quantum-Safe Encryption: Consider adopting encryption methods that are resilient to quantum attacks. New cryptographic standards, often referred to as Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), are being developed to address this specific concern.
Advancements in Technology: Support and invest in technologies that stay ahead of the curve (especially open-source projects), continually updating encryption methods to withstand emerging threats.

Sources

https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/post-quantum-cryptography/
https://statweb.stanford.edu/~cgates/PERSI/papers/MCMCRev.pdf
https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/77239/
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/security/encryption/what-types-of-encryption-are-there/#:~:text=There%20are%20two%20types%20of,used%20for%20encryption%20and%20decryption.
https://signal.org/docs/specifications/pqxdh/

Bilateral Control: MIT’s answer to Traffic Jams

Automotive, Engineering, Mathematics / By Ahmed Aldeeb

Navigating traffic can be a test of patience, especially when tailgating adds stress to an already congested commute. But what if a simple change in driving behavior could significantly ease traffic congestion and reduce travel time? New research from MIT suggests that maintaining a safe and equal distance between the car in front and the car behind could be a game-changer.

A computer simulation by MIT researchers showing traffic flow when equal distance on both the front and back is maintained (top) and when drivers focus on the vehicle in front (bottom)

Tailgating, aside from being aggressive and unsafe, exacerbates traffic jams, according to a study published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. The researchers propose a behavioral shift: drivers should consider not only the car in front but also the one behind, maintaining equilibrium to keep traffic flowing smoothly — in what they call “bilateral control”. This adjustment, backed by mathematical simulations, could potentially reduce commute times in half on certain roads.

The study’s co-author, Berthold Horn, a professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science expands on his previous work on “bilateral control” and takes a more macro level view in this new paper. He states “Birds have be doing this for centuries. To program this behavior, you’d want to look at the birds all around you and not just the ones in front of you.”

Evidently, he hopes that car companies incorporate rear sensors and update cruise control systems to account for these distances, so that traffic flow could significantly improve. However, the full benefits would only be realised if a substantial number of cars implement this system in the real world. According to Horn, traffic would improve drastically if just a small percentage of all cars implemented such systems. In future work funded in part by Toyota, he hopes to produce further simulations to test whether this method improves both the speed and safety of transportation on public road systems.

In conclusion, such systems can drastically improve transportation time and even reduce our global Carbon footprint by 25.4 billion kilograms of CO2.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8861133
https://stormy.biology.utah.edu/publications/1984_Potts_Nature.pdf
https://people.csail.mit.edu/bkph/articles/Suppressing_Traffic_Flow%20Instabilities_IEEE_ITS_2013.pdf
https://math.mit.edu/traffic/

SpaceX Internet Service Provider “Starlink” reaches One Million User Milestone

Editors Pick, Engineering, Mathematics, Technology / By Zakarya Aldeeb

A tweet from SpaceX earlier this week reports that their “Starlink” service has amassed over a million subscriptions.

SpaceX satellite network “Starlink” was developed in hopes of providing low-cost internet globally, especially to remote locations that lack reliable internet connectivity.

How does it work?

Starlink satellites function through identical means to those of other satellite internet service technologies, an internet service provider will transmit an internet signal to a satellite in space, which then comes back to the users and is captured by their satellite dish. These dishes are connected to a modem which connects their computer with the captured internet signal. The issue with this, is that your data must travel all the way to a satellite in space and back to you on Earth. These long trips take a considerable amount of time, and in turn this leads to a higher latency (response time) and a worse connection.

This, is where we face an issue. Ideally, we want an internet connection to have a lower latency, which is where SpaceX’s Starlink comes in. SpaceX’s proposal was to make Starlink “a constellation of thousands of satellites that orbit the planet much closer to Earth, at about 550km, and cover the entire globe”. This shortened geostationary orbit proves much more effective as it increases internet speeds and reduces latency levels.

How fast is Starlink?

It’s fast, but how fast, really? Starlink offers two plans for subscribers, the basic plan, and the premium plan. The basic plan advertises download speeds from 50 to 250 megabytes per second, whilst the premium plan’s download speeds range from 150 to 500 Mbps; is this really the case?

Ookla’s recent report shows that in the US the median download speed was 164 Mbps, which does follow the advertised range provided for both plans. The median latency was about 27 ms in the US which is actually considered within the optimal range of 20-40ms. A huge improvement compared to previous testing.

The future of Starlink

As of writing, the Starlink constellation consists 3300 small satellites, with the latest additions on 17 December 2022. 54 Starlink satellites were launched by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket when it had lifted off for its 15th time. Overall, about 12,000 satellites are planned to be deployed on this mission, with a possible extension to 42,000 afterwards. This should ultimately fulfill SpaceX’s proposal and achieve global internet availability, and the million subscription milestone is a step in that direction.