Waterloo quantum startup is working to secure information in a post-pandemic future with businesses increasingly dependent on the internet
The COVID-19 pandemic hobbled economies around the world, but Waterloo spinoff companies such as evolutionQ are working to secure Canada’s recovery.
The company’s latest venture involves firing photons at satellites in space to pioneer solutions for ultra-secure “quantum keys” that lock and unlock encrypted information. The Canadian Space Agency recently awarded evolutionQ a research grant to help bring satellite-based quantum key distribution into a future world where economic security will very much depend on computer security.
David Jao, chief cryptographer at evolutionQ and a professor in Waterloo’s Faculty of Mathematics, says Canada needs such a system because of the numerous cyber threats ahead.