Key outcome
Develop and release a new product backed by fundamental Australian research aiming to integrate quantum entropy into a cloud product for the secure management of keys and secrets.
Economic impact
- Progress towards document based encryption for email and content management is beneficial for the growth of the entire industry
- Placed Australia on the cutting edge of cyber security research through the collaboration
Government funding
$448,000
Industry funding
$448,000
The AustCyber Projects Fund is a $15 million, three-year initiative designed to help the Australian cyber security industry grow and take ideas globally. Since launching in 2018, AustCyber has provided this funding to projects that are making a real contribution to growing Australia’s cyber security ecosystem, guided by the Sector Competitiveness Plan.
One of the participants in AustCyber’s Projects Fund was a consortium, including QuintessenceLabs, Vault and Ziroh Labs. With the support of AustCyber’s Projects Funds, Vault and their collaborators were able to successfully complete R&D on a new product with an integrated quantum entropy and homomorphic solution, which will be taken to market in the future.
Australia has the opportunity to be on the cutting edge of cyber security product research and development, especially if leading companies are able to work together to achieve great results. Vault Cloud took this approach with their project, collaborating with QuintessenceLabs and Ziroh Labs to conduct a research and development project focused on quantum entropy and homomorphic encryption.
Key and secure management in a ‘shared’ environment is an area of concern for all entities using cloud‐based systems. Quantum entropy generation is a major step towards better encryption, with the ability to create more truly randomised encryption, but the issue of cryptographic applications becoming entropy-starved remains a real challenge. Additionally, while homomorphic encryption is important when securing data at a deeper level, it’s also a difficult step to take.
As it’s essential that the market provides secure cloud services with the best security features for government and critical infrastructure, Vault worked to advance a product to customers which address these encryption issues while remaining adaptable to the many systems and configurations in use.
About the Consortium
QuintessenceLabs is a global leader in cyber security, delivering unique products that integrate high‐value security techniques with advanced quantum technology. These include the world’s fastest true random number generator, flexible and interoperable key and policy manager, and integrated encryption solutions for on‐premise or in‐cloud implementations.
Vault is an Australian ASD-certified cloud service provider that operates a secure, sovereign, hyperscale government community cloud. Vault’s cloud platform natively embeds Australian Government security controls and was in the first group of cloud providers to be certified by the Australian Signals Directorate for classified systems.
Ziroh Labs is a startup formed with the core idea of creating privacy‐preserving cryptographic systems that can be used en masse. They believe that privacy is a very important requirement and should be adhered to under all circumstances.
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Find out more about the other projects involved with the AustCyber Projects Fund.
