SoftBank Taps SandboxAQ Toolset to Help Identify Quantum, AI Cyberthreats

Telecommunication and IT company SoftBank has deployed SandboxAQ’s AQtive Guard cryptograph management platform to identify AI- and quantum computer-based cyberattacks.

SoftBank’s advanced research group initially carried out a test to ensure AQtive Guard could discover any cryptographic and certificate-based vulnerabilities in IT systems.

The company used AQtive Guard to monitor a local government network for potential cryptographic vulnerabilities, the network itself, endpoints and applications.

It discovered several government servers were using non-recommended encryption methods or sending unencrypted traffic and detected several vulnerable certificates that required updates.

This enabled the SoftBank team to take the appropriate actions to resolve those issues.

NIST initiated a process to solicit, evaluate, and standardize quantum-resistant public-key cryptographic algorithms in 2016.  It unveiled the fourth of its first group of algorithms in 2023 and aims to publish the standardization documents this year.

In a related process, in 2022, a U.S. Presidential Executive Order directed government agencies to inventory IT systems using encryption vulnerable to quantum computers.

Other organizations will need to follow suit to ensure they are protected from the threat of quantum computers breaking public key cryptography and other emerging cybersecurity threats.

Related:SoftBank to Create Industrial Robots for Saudi Arabia

Tools like SandboxAQ’s AQtive Guard are designed to automate and simplify this audit process.

SoftBank and SandboxAQ previously partnered on post-quantum cryptography-related projects including successfully testing a hybrid of combined classical and post-quantum cryptography algorithms in early 2023.