Quantum technology landed at one of the highest international governmental gatherings.
2024 is the year of the Italian Presidency of the G7, the annual intergovernmental forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States and representatives from the European Union.
From 13 to 15 June, the G7 Summit was held at Borgo Egnazia, in the city of Fasano, Apulia. The Summit is the larger gathering in the context of the one-year Forum, featuring the participation of the President of the European Council and of the European Commission representing the European Union and of a number of States and International Organisations invited by the host country, in addition to the Heads of State and Government of the G7 Countries.
QKD as a security tool at the G7 Summit
One of the main themes of the Summit was innovation, to the extent that the G7 Italian Presidency published a call for expressions of interest for the supply of innovative products and services characterised by significant technological content.
The TIM Group, through Telsy, the cybersecurity and cryptography competence center of TIM Enterprise, and QTI, provided quantum secure connectivity for sensitive communications during the Summit.
The communications between the Press Centre located at Fiera di Bari in Bari and journalists at Borgo Egnazia in Fasano, at a distance of around 80km, were secured by QTI’s Quantum Key Distribution systems Quell-X and Telsy’s encryptors TelsyMusaX.
Rather than a public demonstration, this represented a real-world application, where QKD technology was used as a tool to address the need to unconditionally secure live communications and maintain accurate reporting in the context of the media coverage of the G7 Summit.
G7 leaders recognised the potential of quantum technology developments and committed to adopt or implement the respective quantum strategies: Apulia G7 Leaders’ Communiqué .
Beyond QKD public demonstration at the G20 in 2021
Back in 2021, QTI’s QKD systems performed the first public demonstration of an intergovernmental quantum communication between three countries – Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. At that time, three musical quartets performed a piece in each of the three countries, exploiting the quantum cryptography established for the demonstration.
In 2021, the main focus was introducing the technology to a wide high-level audience and the maturity of QKD by showcasing a quantum secure videoconference as one of the many already tested applications.
In the 2024 G7 Summit, the quantum secure connection was used as a tool for guaranteeing the security of sensitive communications, testifying the greater maturity and trust in QKD technology and the definitive shift from demonstration to practical applications.
