Country needs to build its own digital security platforms: Sunil Gupta

Sunil Gupta, cofounder of QNu Labs, talks about why digital security is a sovereign need

QNu Labs, a deep technology cybersecurity company, earlier this month raised ₹200 crore in a funding round led by the National Quantum Mission and Speciale Invest. Headquartered in Bengaluru, the company develops quantum-resistant encryption products to protect critical infrastructure, governments, the defence sector and enterprises. Sunil Gupta, cofounder of QNu Labs, tells Avik Das in a video interview why digital security is a sovereign need. Edited excerpts:

 

What is the difference between a traditional cybersecurity company and QNu?

 

One can make encryption keys and infrastructure using software. The problem is that such software is based on traditional encryption and computational complexity. There is mathematics behind it, and the challenge is that advanced and smart machines will be able to solve the mathematics. What we are doing is a more deep-tech play where we use quantum physics to build the encryption keys. That involves the laws of motion, gravity and thermodynamics which cannot be broken. The keys that we build are made in such a way that any act of hacking the key is not possible even by quantum computers. The fear is that quantum computers will be able to break current encryption keys which are based on mathematics. Our keys are quantum-safe.

 

What have been some developments in quantum cybersecurity in the last few years?

 

India has built the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), one of the most successful digital platforms, which is now being exported to other countries. We have built the digital infrastructure which gives us the sovereignty, capability, integration and interoperability to expand an economy. But if you look at the trust, which is the security behind this, that is a borrowed system. What we realised when we set up QNu Labs is that the time has come for India to build its own digital trust platform too.

 

Imagine if you are running UPI over your own sovereign trust platform. What happens is that you are not only building capabilities on top, but you are also 100 per cent sure that you have a sovereign, secure platform. That is what the future is going to be because technologies like quantum computers and artificial intelligence (AI) will continuously test our security and trust. Since it [the technology capability] is borrowed, it will always find ways to break that trust. The winners of the future are those who own the trust infrastructure. And this trust infrastructure is across sectors. So, whatever funding you’re seeing is not for quantum but a support for sovereign digital security and trust infrastructure.

 

Why do you believe sovereign AI models will also need sovereign digital security infrastructure?

 

When you use AI models, your attack surface area becomes larger. We are trying to protect our digital identity, encrypted key, encrypted data, and digital certificates. We are basically upgrading the trust infrastructure which has always been hidden.

 

I think that seriousness is coming now and people are realising that it is not enough to build AI models. Encryption has two parts: Encryption keys and the encryption itself. The former is vulnerable. AI, which is a self-learning system, has the capability to do continuous research and find patterns in the encryption keys. In the new world where there is AI and quantum, quantum computers will also break the encryption key.

 

Which critical sectors do you serve?

 

We are looking at defence, government, telecom, banking and health. Initially it was from defence, but now I think we believe that banking is the biggest sector. In the next three years, the enterprise market of banking, health care and telecom will contribute more than 50 per cent.

 

Have investors become more confident in funding deep tech companies in India?

 

Five years ago, investors never believed that India could do deep tech because we had no background. But with some success stories across sectors, especially in defence and space, the ecosystem has started realising that India is doing the right thing. The competence has also come in with government funding  through the Research, Development and Innovation Fund, National Quantum Mission, Semiconductor Mission and IndiaAI Mission.

 

Six years ago, there were only the small deep-tech-focused funds which were coming in. But as we have seen in our current funding round, existing investors are doubling up. We have seen new venture capitalists coming in and diversifying into deep tech. Private equity is also fitting in because they will only invest when they see there are real products, business models and potential for revenue.

 

What talent do you hire for quantum cybersecurity?

 

We get a lot of people who understand physics, telecom, and cybersecurity. We hired PhDs who have done work in quantum information science. We have about 175 people who are into hardware, software, electronics and mathematics.