CYBERSECURITY
Fairly acknowledging the quantum reality, the Austrian banking giant Erste Group has become the first European banking group to pilot the commercial use of entanglementbased quantum encryption for critical financial infrastructure.
Supporting this project was telecommunications provider A1 and Austrian quantum technology company zerothird.
In this pilot, the bank successfully integrated entangled Quantum Key Distribution – known as eQKD – into Erste Group’ s existing fibre-optic infrastructure in Vienna. The technology beneath it all is based on Austrian Nobel Prize-winning quantum research and designed to secure sensitive customer data against future quantum computing attacks.“ Europe and Austria should not underestimate their potential,” says Peter Bosek, CEO of Erste Group.
“ Together with A1 and zerothird, we are showing what can be achieved. We are preparing our infrastructure for the era of quantum communication, an era in which classic digital encryption will no longer offer sufficient protection.
“ In doing so, we are transforming leading Austrian research into practical a nd future-oriented application.” Following the successful Vienna pilot, Erste Group says it plans to gradually upgrade its wider international banking infrastructure with quantum-secure technologies.
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