The future will see sophisticated hacking. This South Florida company wants to help
In the year since PQSecure, a Boca Raton-based computer security company, won the trade and logistics vertical in the Miami Herald’s 2019 Startup Pitch Competition, it has continued to rack up government support for its research as well as garner interest from major corporations.
The “PQ” in PQSecure stands for “post-quantum.” It’s a term for a computer security process that can protect current computers and devices against attacks from more powerful quantum computers. Right now, only a handful of such supercomputers — which can complete in a matter of seconds what it may take current computers days to process — exist. But that is likely to change soon: The New York Times reports that China has made churning out quantum computers a top priority, a development that the United States views as a national security threat.
Recognizing the importance of PQSecure’s work, the National Science Foundation awarded it a $750,000 grant in September in the prestigious Small Business Innovation Research category. PQSecure is also a member of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium, a group formed by The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology to “expand U.S. leadership in global quantum research and development and the emerging quantum industry in computing, communications and sensing.”
The company is frequently invited to speak on computer security and hacking conferences. And it is currently prototyping its product for Amazon and Intel.
“We are convincing people that this is going to be a real problem, that they need to consider quantum-safe cryptography,” said Reza Azarderakhsh, PQSecure’s co-founder. “Otherwise they are going to lose a lot of data, and their privacy will be threatened.”
PQSecure grew out of Azarderakhsh’s computer engineering lab at Florida Atlantic University. Azarderakhsh, who has a Ph.D. in computer engineering from Western University in Canada, says it is not easy to run a high-tech company out of South Florida, especially given how much more money might be available for companies like PQSecure in places like Silicon Valley. But he remains committed to doing so.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Azarderakhsh said. “We’re trying our best here, and hopefully we can add more local people and local investors.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
