Security in a Complex Non-deterministic World: Towards a Quantum Secure Industrial Internet "QSII&"

Exponential change is a counterintuitive concept in the classical world. It's hardly surprising since our cognitive and social organizations typically discount many of the observations and patterns [1] that would alert us to such historical periods of upheaval [2]. The current suite of digital technologies has catalyzed a total upending of the previous distribution channels and management systems for the acquisition, distribution and assimilation of data, information and knowledge [3],[4],[5]. Today the "digital generation" learns, interacts and transacts in ways that are foreign and suspicious to some of the current gatekeepers of traditional value storage implementations. [6] The global internet and cellular technologies have connected billions of people and trillions of objects into the most complex networks ever created. This fluid and non-deterministic system of systems has unleashed an unprecedented reservoir of creativity, opportunity, capability and risk. The topology of knowledge and connections has never been so asymmetric whereby a single organization or individual (sometimes anonymously) can quickly gain the control, attention and function of millions of machines and people for costs that are often deemed to be insignificant. [7] Traditional methods of security consistently fail because of the nature of this topology and asymmetry. This novel organization of knowledge combined with the power of "action at a distance" requires a new paradigm to secure the future of open society and privacy. Traditional technology platforms for manufacturing, banking, healthcare, finance, social media etc., and their corresponding control mechanisms (digital signatures, passwords, virtual private networks) will potentially fall short in the face of pressure from new computer algorithms/technologies [8] and the global cultural shift that is now deemed to be irreversible (TikTok, WeChat, Facebook, Blockchain, Anonymous) [9]. Code can be exploited in exponential fashion and linear security countermeasures will continue to regularly fail. Undoubtedly, new network designs and technology paradigms will be needed to protect complex systems such as additive manufacturing machines, data and their associated supply chains. Quantum resistant algorithms [10] and novel encrypted and distributed data ledgers offer us hope to blunt this pernicious threat against a hyper-connected world.