Cyberattacks on Quantum Networked Computation and Communications -- Hacking the Superdense Coding Protocol on IBM's Quantum Computers

Abstract: The development of automated gate specification for quantum communications and quantum networked computation opens up the way for malware designed at corrupting the automation software, changing the automated quantum communications protocols and algorithms. We study two types of attacks on automated quantum communications protocols and simulate these attacks on the superdense coding protocol, using remote access to IBM's Quantum Computers available through IBM Q Experience to simulate these attacks on what would be a low noise quantum communications network. The first type of attack leads to a hacker-controlled bijective transformation of the final measured strings, the second type of attack is a unitary scrambling attack that modifies the automated gate specification to effectively scramble the final measurement, disrupting quantum communications and taking advantage of quantum randomness upon measurement in a way that makes it difficult to distinguish from hardware malfunction or from a sudden rise in environmental noise. We show that, due to quantum entanglement and symmetries, the second type of attack works as a way to strategically disrupt quantum communications networks and quantum networked computation in a way that makes it difficult to ascertain which node was attacked. The main findings are discussed in the wider setting of quantum cybersecurity and quantum networked computation, where ways of hacking including the role of insider threats are discussed.