Written by Ray Le Maistre
- SK Telecom (SKT) has been exploring the potential of technology that will enable secure communications in the quantum computing era
- As with any technology, achieving industry consensus on how to implement it will be critical to enabling interoperable services
- SKT is pitching a proposal to the ITU’s network security group in an effort to kickstart the development of global quantum-safe communications standards
With the security of future communications networks in mind, SK Telecom (SKT) is using an ITU security group meeting that is being hosted in South Korea to push for the development of global quantum-safe communications standards based on a combination of quantum key distribution (QKD) and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) technologies.
Enabling the security of data transmitted over communications networks once hackers get their hands on quantum computing resources, which will enable them to quite easily crack current public-key cryptographic codes, is absolutely critical to network operators and particularly vital to their enterprise services offerings. As a result, the development of specifications and standards that will enable operators to deploy quantum-safe communications technologies, which are interoperable and allow the secure transmission of data across multiple networks, is of vital importance – but identifying an approach that will suit the needs and resources of all operators will not be easy.
