Tech future at risk

Aukus has faced international scrutiny since its announcement.

The biggest concern around the exclusion of New Zealand from the alliance is less the creation of a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines and more the agreement of the three countries to collaborate on quantum technology, which has implications for our future cybersecurity as well as our ability to benefit from developing quantum-based technologies ourselves.

New Zealand must do everything in its power to ensure we are not completely locked out of an alliance that may well have capabilities over the control of future technologies that will impact New Zealand.

It is important we work with Australia, the US and UK for inclusion on the quantum technology and cybersecurity aspects of the alliance. It is a matter of having sovereign capability in an area that will define our future.

Currently many forms of data are protected using RSA encryption. As quantum computing advances, this poses a risk to the security of private data, including bank information. The risk to the security of this information may be realised anywhere from two to 20 years, rendering our current security capabilities useless.

Many countries are working on developing methods of quantum cryptography to unconditionally secure information, as you can’t hack quantum cryptography without disrupting the message itself – meaning it is absolutely secure.

The level of sovereign capability we have in this area is significant. The Dodd-Walls Centre, a national Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) involving six New Zealand universities, actively contributes to the development of quantum technology throughout the world. Professor David Hutchinson, Director, Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies