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Ladies and gentlemen,
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to today's event to present the launch of the CYQCI (Cyprus Quantum Communications Infrastructure) project and the role and activities it is expected to play in enhancing cybersecurity in Cyprus.
I would first of all like to congratulate the organisers and thank all stakeholders for their participation. In particular, I would like to thank the members of the consortium for the preparation of Cyprus' excellent proposal which resulted in securing 3.75 million Euro funding from the Digital Europe Program.
I am sure that today will be a productive exchange of views and information on the promotion of quantum optical communications in our country.
Dear friends,
Telecommunications are an integral part of our lives. Starting from simple social interactions to our daily financial transactions, everything is done through various communication networks such as through our mobile phone, our computer, our smart watch, even through the available voice services using artificial intelligence.
However, with the increasing amount of data transmitted through these networks, security is a major concern. Cybersecurity breaches have the potential to cause serious damage to individuals, businesses and even entire nations.
An example is the most recent cyberattacks on our universities and cyberattacks in other EU countries that have the ultimate goal of extortion and often financial gain for the hackers. In many of the cases, however, behind the cyber-attacks are states/governments/secret services that engage in cyber-warfare without the pursuit of monetary gain but only the dismantling/disorganization of the services of the state being attacked.
Today is a very important day as I am pleased to highlight the importance of secure communications through the use of quantum communications and quantum key distribution to further secure these networks. Quantum communications technology is based on optical and photonic communications.
The quantum communications to be used through our country's optical networks should be able to protect our Cyprus from future cyber-attacks and make it a hub for secure communications and data management. This has been made possible through the coordinated actions of the research team of the CUT, the Ministry of State of CSPS and THE, the ATHK, the CDC, the APSA and the ministries and agencies involved in this project.
Secure communications are essential for the protection of sensitive information, confidential data and our national security. Cyber criminals are evolving methods in their attacks and traditional encryption methods will no longer be adequate especially with the development of quantum computers that will have the processing power to "unlock" encrypted messages in a very short period of time.
But quantum communications are here, technologically more mature than quantum computers, to provide the immediate applied and highly secure form of encryption as a solution. Quantum communications is a new type of technology that uses the principles of quantum mechanics to transmit information securely. One of the main benefits of quantum communications is its ability to provide absolute security. This is done through a process called quantum key distribution (QKD).
Quantum key distribution uses the principles of quantum mechanics to ensure that any attempt to intercept/steal the key is immediately detected. This means that even the most powerful supercomputers in the world will not be able to break quantum encryption.
The use of quantum communication and quantum key distribution has the potential to revolutionize communication networks, both public and private, thus developing new/innovative services that can bring profits to the local economy and make our Cyprus a secure telecommunication hub in the wider region.
The potential benefits of quantum communication are enormous, ranging from the protection of personal data to the security of critical infrastructure such as power grids, telecommunications, transport systems, financial transactions, management and transmission of medical data, exchange of sensitive information between EU countries, military communications as well as secure transmission of data and conversations from mobile networks (4G/5G) etc.
The importance of secure communication cannot be underestimated. With the increasing volume of data being transmitted through various communication networks, it is important to take measures to protect this information.
The risk is already present and Cyprus is no exception to cyber-attacks. As we evolve further into the 21st century, we can expect to see quantum communication becoming an integral part of our communication networks and the CYQCI project is our pioneering step in this direction.
Through this research project which is essential, Cyprus has the potential to further expand and develop innovative applications in optical communications, satellite communications, photonics and cybersecurity through EU funding opportunities as well as Cyprus' national resources.
