Director General for Technology highlights importance of the work of the National Quantum Technology Programme

Good morning. I am Gav Smith, Director General for Technology at GCHQ, and I am delighted to be here and to speak at this year’s Quantum Technologies Showcase. There is a fantastic breadth of work on display today and it is a testament to the health of the UK community and the work of the National Quantum Technology Programme. I wanted to add GCHQ’s voice to the importance of that work and to offer our continued help and support as part of it.

This month marks exactly 100 years of GCHQ. In November 1919 the Government Code and Cypher School was formed to break German naval codes and began an incredible story that has resulted in the GCHQ that we see today.

It is 100 years that has been marked by world events, changes in society, our people, our partnerships, their ingenuity, and much more besides. Today, GCHQ’s mission is as critical to the security of the UK as it has ever been: from our work to counter terrorism, our work to tackle serious and organised crime, our support to defence, and of course, the work of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to help make the UK the safest place to live and do business online.

At the very heart of that story has been technology. And the brilliant people who use technology to in our work to help keep the country safe. Perhaps most famously, Tommy Flowers and Alan Turing helped to pioneer the computing age through their work on COLOSSUS. 

Just as importantly, Cliff Cocks and Malcolm Williamson worked on what became known as RSA and the Diffie-Hellmann key exchange – in response to a challenge set by James Ellis. It helped to create the internet we know and love today. But perhaps our biggest mistake was keeping it a secret while we worked out what to do with it. 

There have been numerous other steps forward in our work since then too: some I can talk about and some I still can’t. But that key lesson from our past is a powerful one: where we can talk about it - we need to. I will come back to that.

GCHQ’s story is clearly one that is synonymous with technology. But what is perhaps less obvious – beyond COLOSSUS and public key cryptography - is that we have done more than just consume or adopt that technology. We have very often helped to pioneer it. Sometimes that is through our cyber security advice and the work of the NCSC. Sometimes it is through our academic engagement. Sometimes it is by putting new technology through its paces as an early adopter on some of our toughest mission problems. Sometimes it is by putting skilled people into teams beyond GCHQ. Increasingly, it is about our work ‘beyond the wire’ and our contributions in the open source community. Doing all of that helps us to keep the country safe: both online and in the real world; but it also enables us to make a wider contribution to the society we serve. Both aspects of our work are important to the people who work in GCHQ. It is one of the reasons why many of them walk in through the door in the morning.

And so, let me try and apply that approach quantum technologies. If more traditional computing has been a key part of GCHQ’s first 100 years; then quantum computing is surely going to be a part of our next 100 years. Quantum technologies have the potential to be disruptive across multiple sectors and you can see the evidence of that all around us in the showcase today. I know I am preaching to the choir: but we clearly have a strong and vibrant quantum community in the UK. As Roger rightly points out in his programme forward, we are collectively influencing the investment plans in academia, government and industry. Quantum technology is turning in to quantum business.

I want GCHQ to be an increasingly active member of - and when it is right - a leader in this community - both here in the UK and internationally. 

The NCSC published its advice for Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) back in November 2016 and has been prominent in the public debate on quantum-safe security since then. We have published some important technical papers in quantum information theory and post quantum cryptography for the academic community. We have been very active in ETSI and other international Standards bodies in support of UK industry.

I would argue that this is the most important and urgent work we can do in quantum right now. Helping users and developers to be more secure is our first priority as we enter the quantum age. It is critical that we can defend against the threats we expect in the future. The NCSC will continue to play its role as the UK Authority for quantum safe cryptography.

But as well as the work of the NCSC, GCHQ can, does, and will continue to, make a wider contribution to the quantum effort in the UK: 

- By being part of the policy community and helping to ensure that we have provided decision makers with the best possible advice – making sure that the UK benefits from the investment in quantum that the UK government is making available.

- By bringing our expertise in quantum technologies to help challenge and support the NQTP in achieving the UK goal of being a leader in practical quantum technologies:

- We will continue to use our world-class expertise to help create and optimise new and existing uses of quantum computation devices. We have unique, classified knowledge and we will bring that to bear in the widest possible way too.

- We will provide an expert-supported proving ground using real problems, real data and real understanding for novel quantum related technologies, in support of our national programmes.

- I want us to continue to add to the research base and publish what we can. 

- I want us to help wherever we can with horizon scanning so that we can understand the state of quantum computation technologies around the world and how they could impact our national security and our national programmes.

… and there is much more besides. 

Most importantly, I want to make sure that we in GCHQ are as open as we can be about our work in quantum technologies. COLOSSUS and our work at Bletchley Park was famously kept secret for decades after the end of World War II. We kept our work on public key cryptography to ourselves for over two decades too. 

Clearly, some of our work necessarily remains a secret today - just as it did back then. But it is vital that GCHQ is an increasingly open and visible member of the quantum technology community. I am immensely proud of the work we are doing in quantum and I am delighted that we have been able to talk about it and to sponsor this showcase event today. But it is also critical that we learn from the talent and expertise in the quantum community too. We need to be open with our advances and open to learning from the advances of those around us. In doing so, we will play our full part in making the UK a leader in the development and application of quantum technologies; and help to inspire others to come and work with us. 

Thank you.