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Category: encryption

Quantum Entangles the Heavens

As the United States, Europe, and China compete to shape the future of the Earth-Moon corridor, strategic advantage will depend not only on launch capacity or lunar infrastructure, but also on advances in quantum technologies. Just as secure systems are critical on Earth, satellites and space-based systems underpin high-value, high-impact operations from financial transactions and navigation to scientific discovery and classified military missions.

Quantum technologies, which enable new levels of speed, sensitivity, and security, are emerging as critical tools to improve existing extraterrestrial systems. Modern digital communications are secured by encryption built on math problems that are extremely difficult for regular computers to solve, but that sufficiently advanced quantum computers could eventually crack. Quantum communications technologies could add a new layer of protection by making it easier to detect when someone is trying to intercept sensitive information. Quantum sensors can measure position and time with an accuracy that GPS only approximates. Lastly, quantum computers could unlock new capabilities beyond current computational limits, from designing advanced materials to optimizing increasingly complex satellite networks.

Countries are racing to match their space and quantum ambitions with national strategies. The White House is reportedly drafting an executive order to strengthen US competitiveness in quantum technologies. The rumored draft directs multiple US government bodies, including NASA, to develop a five-year roadmap to expand quantum sensing and networking capabilities. The EU’s 2025 Quantum Europe Strategy highlights “Space and Dual-Use Quantum Technologies” as one of its five strategic focuses, and China’s 15th Five-Year Plan has called for expanding the country’s ground-to-space quantum communications network.

VECT 2.0 Ransomware Irreversibly Destroys Files Over 131KB on Windows, Linux, ESXi

Threat hunters are warning that the cybercriminal operation known as VECT 2.0 acts more like a wiper than a ransomware due to a critical flaw in its encryption implementation across Windows, Linux, and ESXi variants that renders recovery impossible even for the threat actors.

The fact that VECT’s locker permanently destroys large files rather than encrypting them means even victims who opt to pay the ransom cannot get their data back, as the decryption keys are discarded by the malware during the time encryption occurs.

“VECT is being marketed as ransomware, but for any file over 131KB – which is most of what enterprises actually care about – it functions as a data destruction tool,” Eli Smadja, group manager at Check Point Research, said in a statement shared with The Hacker News.

Kyber ransomware gang toys with post-quantum encryption on Windows

A new Kyber ransomware operation is targeting Windows systems and VMware ESXi endpoints in recent attacks, with one variant implementing Kyber1024 post-quantum encryption.

Cybersecurity firm Rapid7 retrieved and analyzed two distinct Kyber variants in March 2026 during an incident response. Both variants were deployed on the same network, with one targeting VMware ESXi and the other focusing on Windows file servers.

“The ESXi variant is specifically built for VMware environments, with capabilities for datastore encryption, optional virtual machine termination, and defacement of management interfaces,” explains Rapid7.

The Gentlemen ransomware now uses SystemBC for bot-powered attacks

A SystemBC proxy malware botnet of more than 1,570 hosts, believed to be corporate victims, has been discovered following an investigation into a Gentlemen ransomware attack carried out by a gang affiliate.

The Gentlemen ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation emerged around mid-2025 and provides a Go-based locker that can encrypt Windows, Linux, NAS, and BSD systems, and a C-based locker for ESXi hypervisors.

Last December, it compromised one of Romania’s largest energy providers, the Oltenia Energy Complex. Earlier this month, The Adaptavist Group disclosed a breach that Gentlemen ransomware listed on its data leak site.

Quantum Fourier transform reaches 52 qubits, shattering the previous 27-qubit record

The spin-off company ParityQC has implemented the largest quantum Fourier transform ever reported using an IBM quantum computer, thereby setting a new milestone on the path toward the industrial application of quantum computers. The quantum Fourier transform is a cornerstone algorithm with applications in cryptography, financial modeling, and materials science.

Innsbruck-based quantum architecture company ParityQC performed a quantum Fourier transform using 52 superconducting qubits on an IBM Heron quantum processor. This surpasses the previous record of 27 qubits, which was set two years ago using an ion-trap quantum computer. The results were published this week on the arXiv preprint server.

“This milestone was only possible through the synergy of IBM’s latest quantum hardware and the ParityQC Architecture, which unlocked an exponential improvement in efficiency,” say Wolfgang Lechner and Magdalena Hauser, Co-CEOs of ParityQC. “What we are witnessing is European quantum innovation taking a global lead in translating theoretical potential into real-world performance.”

Spatiotemporal light pulses could secure optical communication by masking data

Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have developed a new approach to secure optical communication that hides information in the physical structure of light, making it difficult for unauthorized parties to intercept or decode. The study addresses a growing challenge: advances in quantum computing are expected to weaken many of today’s encryption methods. While most security solutions rely on complex mathematical algorithms, this research adds protection earlier in the process—during the transmission of the signal itself.

The research was led by Dr. Judith Kupferman and Prof. Shlomi Arnon from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The findings were published in Optical and Quantum Electronics.

The researchers propose a communication method based on specially shaped light pulses, known as spatiotemporal optical vortices. These light beams are designed so that their key features are not visible in standard measurements.

Hackers meet their match: New DNA encryption protects engineered cells from within

Engineered cells are a high-value genetic asset that is key to many fields, including biotechnology, medicine, aging, and stem cell research, with the global market projected to reach $8.0 trillion USD by 2035. Yet the only ways to keep the cells safe are strong locks and watchful guards.

In Science Advances, a team of U.S. researchers present a new approach to genetically securing precious biological material. They created a genetic combination lock in which the locking or encryption process scrambled the DNA of a cell so that its important instructions were non-functional and couldn’t be easily read or used.

The unlocking, or decryption, process involves adding a series of chemicals in a precise order over time—like entering a password—to activate recombinases, which then unscramble the DNA to their original, functional form.

Google rolls out Gmail end-to-end encryption on mobile devices

Google says Gmail end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is now available on all Android and iOS devices, allowing enterprise users to read and compose emails without additional tools.

Starting this week, encrypted messages will be delivered as regular emails to Gmail recipients’ inboxes if they use the Gmail app.

Recipients who don’t have the Gmail mobile app and use other email services can read them in a web browser, regardless of the device and service they’re using.

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