Quantum encryption company faces baseless claims

With the internet becoming an integral part of everyday life, cyber security has become increasingly important in recent years, particularly for businesses. Despite this, in recent days world-famous newspapers like the Wall Street Journal have chosen to go on record and unfairly target a British start-up working at the forefront of cyber security.

The company, Arqit, specialises in quantum encryption, a form of cryptography designed to keep data safe from quantum computers. Although these computers are still in the early stages of development, they will soon be capable of breaking through the most secure forms of encryption, and if this technology falls into the wrong hands, it could leave governments and businesses alike utterly defenceless.

This is where companies like Arqit, and others working on this technology, come in. Arqit’s proprietary software, QuantumCloud, has been designed to be quantum safe. Even the National Security Agency, in the US, has confirmed that Arqit’s encryption algorithm is secure. It produces symmetric keys that are then sent out to the intended recipients wherever they are, and beamed down to users from satellites. Arqit has partnered with Virgin Orbit to launch its quantum encryption satellites into space next year, and its other partners include BT and Sumitomo, a Japanese conglomerate. It was floated on the US stock market late last year, and valued at over £1.07 billion ($1.4 billion).

However, a recent report in the Wall Street Journal threatens to undermine all of the organisation’s work over the past few years. The story claims that Arqit overstated its prospects to investors with misleading financial projections, that its product isn’t as effective as it says it is. Since the story was published, though, Arqit has brought out its own statement to refute it and point out the false claims that the Wall Street Journal made.

For a start, the Arqit statement points out that the story is “based on little more than the unsubstantiated and out of date comments of two long departed and disgruntled former employees.” The employees, according to Arqit, left the company more than 18 months ago, but the Wall Street Journal has apparently taken their words as gospel without bothering to fact-check anything that they said.

Another point in the article is that government agencies have been criticising the efficacy of QKD, otherwise known as quantum key distribution. Nobody's disagreeing with this. In fact, Arqit would join in with the criticism of QKD, which is why they don’t use this technology. They even agree with the NCSC’s (National Cyber Security Centre) and the NSA’s (National Security Agency) views. As Dr. Barry Childe, the CIO of Arqit, pointed out, “there is presently no viable mass market technology within the field of fibre or satellite QKD for addressing quantum information point to point with zero trust operation or usable efficiency.”

One look at Arqit’s website would show you that their product is completely different to QKD. While it may have started out with QKD when the company was founded in 2017, it’s moved on, using ‘replicated randomness’ to produce its symmetric keys. Arqit also released another statement recently, which goes into even more detail about the work they do, and busts some of the myths that are out there about quantum cryptography. 

It’s clear to see that the Wall Street Journal doesn’t seem to be concerned about telling the truth, or even letting facts getting in the way of what, for them, seems to be a way of getting clicks. Other publications published their own versions of this story, but the British newspaper The Telegraph have already realised it was defamatory and withdrawn. Whether the Wall Street Journal sees the light and follows suit, however, remains to be seen.