IDQ & SK Broadband expand use of QKD to protect critical data in South Korea
ID Quantique (IDQ), the world leader in Quantum-Safe security solutions and SK Broadband, Korea’s telecom media service provider, today announced that, for the second year in a row, they have been selected to establish and operate a Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) pilot infrastructure across the country.
Building highly secure communication networks is a priority for the Korea Intelligence Information Society Agency (NIA) to enhance security in the public, medical, and industrial sectors.
This new ‘Quantum Key Distribution’ pilot infrastructure project is a government-run project (part of the Digital New Deal). It is in its second year and aims at ensuring long-term security of critical infrastructure, which are at risk from quantum computing, a technology rapidly progressing towards practical applications. In 2020, the two companies joined forces to deploy QKD in 17 highly sensitive sites. Now SK Broadband will use ID Quantique’s leading QKD products to protect the network of seven institutions and ensure ultra-secure communications, and expand the use of quantum cryptography in the country.
IDQ’s QKD technology will be applied in the public sector to Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., Daejeon Waterworks Headquarters and Gwangju Institute of Health and Environment. This includes securing an emergency communication network and protecting key data and personal information held by public institutions.
In the private sector, QKD will be applied to Pyeonghwa Holdings, to protect the world’s best hydrogen car design technology center. It will also be applied to Korea University’s K-Bio Center in South Korea’s first cloud-based medical system. In addition, Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital will install QKD to protect personal information used by autonomous robots.
SK Broadband Consortium, in which SK Telecom (SKT) and IDQ participated, won a total of 6.8 billion won in this ‘QKD’ project. SKT was also selected to install QKD on the “Super-connected Intelligent Research and Development Network (KOREN)” ordered by the Korea Intelligence Information Society Agency (NIA).
Sensitive data is increasingly in danger from the growing threat of cyberattacks and more and more companies and governments are highly concerned by this issue. We are honoured to contribute, with the SK Broadband consortium, to the establishment of a highly secure digital economy in South Korea.
Grégoire Ribordy, CEO and co-founder of ID Quantique
At ID Quantique, we focus on providing high-performance quantum-safe security solutions for the protection of data in transit. By upgrading existing network encryption products with Quantum Key Distribution (aka quantum cryptography), IDQ ensures that the solutions are “quantum-safe”. Based on the laws of quantum mechanics, QKD enables two parties to produce a shared random secret key known only to them, which can then be used to encrypt and decrypt messages. Our solutions protect sensitive data into and beyond the quantum era when quantum computers, which are being built now, will render most of today’s conventional encryption algorithms vulnerable.
About ID Quantique
Founded in 2001 as a spin-off of the Group of Applied Physics of the University of Geneva, ID Quantique is the world leader in quantum-safe crypto solutions, designed to protect data for the future. The company provides quantum-safe network encryption, secure quantum key generation and Quantum Key Distribution solutions and services to the financial industry, enterprises and government organizations globally. IDQ’s quantum random number generator has been validated according to global standards and independent agencies, and is the reference in highly regulated and mission critical industries – such as security, encryption, critical infrastructure and IoT – where trust is paramount.
Additionally, IDQ is a leading provider of optical instrumentation products, most notably photon counters and related electronics. The company’s innovative photonic solutions are used in both commercial and research applications.
IDQ’s products are used by government, enterprise and academic customers in more than 60 countries and on every continent. IDQ is proud of its independence and neutrality, and believes in establishing long-term and trusted relationships with its customers and partners.
For more information, please visit www.idquantique.com.
Contact Info:
Catherine Simondi – VP Marketing & Communication
catherine.simondi@idquantique.com or +41 (0) 22 301 83 71
