Quantum Computer Fault Injection Attacks
Chuanqi Xu, Ferhat Erata, Jakub Szefer
September, 2024
Abstract
The rapid growth of interest in quantum computing has brought about the need to secure these emerging computers against a range of security attacks. Among the potential security threats are physical attacks, including those orchestrated by malicious insiders within data centers where the quantum computers are located, which could compromise the integrity of computations and resulting data. To help in the understanding of emerging fault injection attacks on quantum computers, this paper presents an in-depth exploration of quantum computer fault injection attacks. This work introduces a classification of fault injection attacks and strategies, including an analysis of the domain of fault injection attacks, the fault targets, and the fault manifestations in quantum computers. The resulting classification highlights the landscape of the potential threats, and presents a road map for researchers and industry for developing security protection mechanisms against fault injection attacks for the emerging quantum computing systems.
Publication
2024 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE)
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Ph.D. Student
I am a PhD candidate at Yale University. My current research focuses on quantum computing and computer security, where I design novel attacks and defenses targeting quantum computers and quantum cloud providers. Specifically, my work explores security and privacy across the entire technology stack of quantum computers:
- Investigating vulnerabilities in quantum processors and qubit technologies.
- Developing secure and private quantum computer systems and architecture.
- Ensuring the security of quantum algorithms, with a focus on quantum machine learning (QML).
Previously, I worked on RTL design (Verilog) for FPGAs, implementing Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) that is secure to both classical and quantum computer attacks.
I am actively seeking roles as a research scientist, software engineer, and quant researcher. I am broadly interested in developing systems and infrastructure, especially for ML/GenAI infrastructure and systems.