PQShield, which was recently named in the CyberTech100, has secured £5.5m in a funding round as it launches out of stealth.
The injection was supplied by Kindred Capital, Crane Venture Partners and Oxford Sciences Innovation. Contributions also came from angel investors, including Andre Crawford-Brunt, former global head of equities at Deutsche Bank.
As with any major development in technology, there are host of opportunities waiting to be realised, but there are a heap of dangers. Quantum computers are no different. While they may be capable of dramatically reducing the timeframe of processes, it means they can also accelerate malicious activities.
PQShield claims that the quantum computer will be capable of breezing past traditional public-key encryption and put sensitive information in serious danger.
The threat quantum computers is not unknown, despite there being little work to take action. In 2015, the US National Security Agency said it must “act now” to ensure sensitive data can be protected when quantum computers see wide use. Furthermore, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has begun to define new, quantum-ready cryptographic standards.
Dr El Kaafarani, founder and CEO AT PQShield, said, “Too often, we see a huge gulf between academic theory and commercial reality. Cryptographers know that quantum computers pose a real and devastating threat, yet most businesses fail to recognise the need to protect their information beyond today’s security challenges.
“Whether cars, planes or other connected devices, many of the products designed and sold today are going to be used for decades. Their hardware may be built to last, but right now, their security certainly isn’t. Future-proofing is an imperative, just as it is for the banks and agencies that hold so much of our sensitive data.”
PQShield company was spawned from the University of Oxford, is looking to help businesses be ready for this shift by rolling out quantum-secure cryptography. These are advanced cryptographic solutions for hardware, software and communications, which are ready for quantum computers and will still enable data sharing with legacy systems.
“At PQShield, our team of researchers and engineers is bringing cutting-edge cryptography solutions out of the research lab and into today’s businesses, so they can confidently face the security threats of today and tomorrow. We are delighted to partner with Kindred Capital and our other investors to help realise our vision of a world in which quantum computers pose no threat to information security.”
Founded in 2018, PQShield claims to be the only cybersecurity company to offer a full suite of quantum-secure solutions for software, hardware and data in transit. Its system on chip (SoC) solution enables secure messaging solutions and protects them with post-quantum algorithms which use a signal-derived protocol.
Its technology is capable of securing everything from keyless cars and connected devices to data moving between cloud servers, it claims.
Earlier in the year, the company was listed in the inaugural CyberTech100, a list of the cybersecurity companies you should know about in 2020.
PQShield recently spoke with RegTech Analyst, explaining how the platform came to be, read the full article here.
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