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It is of utmost interest to protect data generated by federal ministries, institutions and in the military context. Besides confidential communication the need for a secure way to store and archive as well as exchange documents is evident and needs protection with cutting edge technology: QKD and fragmentiX Secret Sharing.
In this use case a QKD protected Secret Sharing network is established between three federal ministries and the Austrian chancellery. After successful implementation and testing, this network shall be extended with a long-distance link to another location near Salzburg. This will enable Data exchange and storage with highest possible security between the involved governmental entities.
The QKD network established will also be used for the demonstration of secure video conferencing between the ministries.
To establish a secure connection between the ministries and the chancellery, a ring topology for the QKD network was chosen. Using a key management system (KMS) it is possible to establish end-to-end encryption keys between each site individually. The architecture and design are shown in the graphic, where every site is equipped with:
QKD equipment (incl. KMS and link encryptors)
fragmentiX CLUSTER secret sharing appliance
Storage server (only three are needed for the minimal implementation)
In coordination with the federal partners, the hardware installation of the QKD equipment will be carried out by technicians of AIT and the setup and integration of the fragmentiX Secret Sharing Appliance will be performed by fragmentiX. Once all network infrastructure (including QKD devices) is set up, configured and tested, the secret sharing network will be established. After a testing period, the secret sharing will be integrated in the office workflow and an evaluation of the workflow and user experience will be conducted. For the connection to the additional site, the trusted repeater nodes (developed in this project for the medical use case) will be integrated into the governmental QKD network.
ABOUT QCI-CAT
Building on the long research experience of Austrian institutions in the field of quantum technologies, the project QCI-CAT aims at an adoption of modern encryption technology based on QKD for highly secure communication between public authorities.
QCI-CAT will investigate and verify new security applications for public authorities, such as secret sharing and message authentication.
Additionally, QCI-CAT will also leverage a research testbed for new technological approaches such as the combination of post-quantum encryption with QKD, long-distance QKD with secured trusted nodes and field trials of quantum repeaters.
