Qubitekk to Receive Federal Funding to Help Protect Nation's Power Grid from Cyber Attack

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- San Diego startup Qubitekk (qubitekk.com) will benefit from a $3M Department of Energy grant to speed the development of unhackable quantum encryption technology that will protect the country's power grid from cyber attack.

Under the DOE's Cybersecurity for Energy Delivery Systems (CEDS) program, the nation's premier program for grid security, Qubitekk will be working in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the University of Texas at Austin, Sandia National Laboratory, and Pacific Gas & Electric to prepare for threats to critical infrastructure in the twenty-first century and beyond.

With cyber attacks on the rise and growing more sophisticated by the day, few dispute the need to defend the U.S. power grid. Leading government, industry and cyber experts agree that a successful breach, especially with recent advances related to code-breaking quantum computers, is only a matter of time.

Because quantum computers promise to be thousands of times faster than even the most powerful supercomputers they can quickly crack the toughest encryption without warning. In the wrong hands they could be considered weapons. At least 11 nations including China and Russia are known to be developing such technology. Tamper proof quantum encryption is the only long-term defense.

"This Department of Energy funding is another indicator that quantum information technology is moving quickly into critical near-term applications," said Dr. Duncan Earl, founder and CTO of Qubitekk. "We will soon see the emergence of a tremendous new market related to quantum-enhanced products. The possibilities for major breakthroughs across multiple disciplines are truly endless."

Qubitekk recently announced the availability of the world's first plug-and-play entangled photon generator, the QES1. Like the transistors at the hearts of classical computers, the QES1 enables the flow of information through quantum computers and quantum encryption products – both of which the company is currently developing.

About Qubitekk, Inc.

San Diego-based Qubitekk, formerly known as GridCOM Technologies, is a private company founded in 2012 to commercialize the core technology required to speed the adoption of quantum computing and cryptography technologies and applications. Dr. Duncan Earl, founder and CTO, is one of the leading developers of quantum entanglement solutions, having served nearly 20 years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), most recently with the Cyberspace Sciences and Information Intelligence Research group. Learn more at www.qubitekk.com. Qubitekk's Quantum Data Locking technology was named as one of Popular Science magazine's "20 Ideas that will Change the World," in January 2014 under the company's former name, GridCOM Technologies.

Since 2012 Qubitekk has raised more than $2 million in working capital.

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SOURCE Qubitekk, Inc.