Quantinuum rolls out quantum-powered encryption tool, company’s first product

BROOMFIELD — Quantinuum, a Broomfield company newly spun out of Honeywell International Inc. (Nasdaq: HON), has released its first quantum computing-enabled cybersecurity product called Quantum Origin.

Origin harnesses the power of a noisy, intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computer to develop cryptographic encryption keys that are far more secure than those created using traditional random number generators.

“It’s the first product that’s truly useful and performs in a way that can only be done by virtue of quantum computers,” Quantinuum president Tony Uttley told BizWest. 

“There’s no silver bullet that solves every cyber-security problem” using traditional computing power, and hacking groups have become “so sophisticated now that they have the resources to gather massive amounts of data that allow them to start predicting” encryption keys, he said.

However Quantinuum’s technology creates a key, which is used similarly to a password, that’s “non-deterministic,” meaning no amount of data can be gathered to help bad actors guess the key, according to the company. 

Quantum computing taps into the power of quantum mechanics and its properties of  superposition, interference and entanglement to solve problems that are far too complex for traditional computers. 

The unpredictable nature of quantum physics allows Quantinuum to harness quantum randomness to create what it claims to be virtually unhackable encryption keys.

“We have been working for a number of years now on a method to efficiently and effectively use the unique features of quantum computers in order to provide our customers with a defense against adversaries and criminals now and in the future once quantum computers are prevalent,” Quantinuum CEO Ilyas Khan said in a prepared statement. 

Financial services, critical infrastructure, oil and gas operators, pharmaceutical companies and “anyone who needs to protect data for a very long period of time are very interested in this product,” Uttley said.  

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