Assurance for quantum random number generators

Data is one of the world's most valuable commodities -- affecting every person, every company, every government, everywhere. Most of the world's cybersecurity infrastructure is based on the exchange and use of digital cryptographic keys. Random number generators (RNGs) are essential components of this existing infrastructure, and newer technologies such as quantum key distribution. Quantum random number generators (QRNGs) are devices that utilise the inherent randomness in natural physical processes to create random numbers, assured unique to each device if the process is truly quantum, and are one of the first practical implementations of quantum technologies. A key differentiator of quantum RNGs over other conventional pseudo RNGs, crucial for all security applications, is that identically manufactured and prepared pseudo RNGs are certain to produce the same random sequences, while QRNGs are not.

A method for providing authoritative assessment of the unique randomness produced by QRNGs does not currently exist. This project will address that need, thereby overcoming this important technological barrier to their commercial and industrial exploitation, and maximising UK return from quantum technology research in this field. Current tests for random number generators (RNGs), based on numerical analysis of their outputs, give information about the statistical properties of the output randomness but cannot assure that the output is unknown to others. Stronger assessment is possible for QRNGs, since in addition to numerical analysis to assure randomness, the physical process used to create the output can be modelled and physically tested. Assessing the "quantumness" of the process also assesses the privacy of the output.

This project will take QRNGs that are either already on the market or near-market prototypes and implement this assessment approach. It will thereby provide the expertise and capability for creating a UK assessment process for QRNGs.