Melita Ltd has announced the successful deployment of quantum encryption using equipment located inside its two data centres – this is a first for Malta and is rarely found outside laboratories.

This event marked a significant advance in the development of a national quantum communication network that will provide a level of cyber security that had not been achieved before.

Through the PRISM project, quantum technologies are being developed or secure cryptography and cryptographic key distribution, from quantum communication that offers a secure method for exchanging cryptographic keys to quantum secure cryptography that provides resilience against hacking and espionage.

PRISM (Physical Security for Public Infrastructure in Malta), co-financed by the EU, plans to implement secure quantum communication on ordinary telecommunications networks, for the first time in the EU. It will guarantee data security against current and future cyber threats.

Founder and CEO of Merqury Cybersecurity Ltd, Prof. André Xuereb, who’s also a Professor at the UM’s Department of Physics within the Faculty of Science, explained, “Standard encryption used today relies on mathematics to encrypt and decrypt data. Encrypted data can be copied by attackers and decrypted if they have powerful enough computers, or if the encryption method is weak. Quantum cryptography ensures that data can only be deciphered by parties who share quantum keys. In addition, the data cannot be copied or read by a hacker without being noticed."

A public exhibition is scheduled for the coming weeks, which will include a demonstration of this technology between two sites at the University of Malta.

PRISM is co-financed by the European Union under the Grant Agreement of the Digital Europe Programme.