A Quantum Computer Trusted Execution Environment
Theodoros Trochatos, Chuanqi Xu, Sanjay Deshpande, Yao Lu, Yongshan Ding, Jakub Szefer
October, 2023Abstract
We present the first architecture for a trusted execution environment for quantum computers. In the architecture, to protect the user’s circuits, they are obfuscated with decoy control pulses added during circuit transpilation by the user. The decoy pulses are removed, i.e. attenuated, by the trusted hardware inside the superconducting quantum computer’s fridge before they reach the qubits. This preliminary work demonstrates that protection from possibly malicious cloud providers is feasible with minimal hardware cost.
Publication
IEEE Computer Architecture Letters

Ph.D. Student
I am a PhD student at Yale University, and my research interests lie in quantum computing and computer security. I am currently working on quantum computer security, where I design attack and defense mechanisms on quantum computers and quantum cloud providers. I am also working on RTL design (Verilog) targeting FPGAs, where I implement Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) schemes that are secure under both classical and quantum computer attacks.