In marking World Quantum Day, FBI warns of national security risk from emerging tech

April 12 (UPI) -- In preparation for the upcoming World Quantum Day, the Federal Bureau of Investigation outlined its commitment to keep emerging technologies, such as quantum computing, out of the hands of foreign adversaries.

The annual holiday to highlight quantum science and technology is April 14.

The agency, in a statement, said hostile nations are "aggressively attempting" to obtain new and emerging technologies that will give them economic and military advantages over the United States.

"Quantum information science and technology has the potential for enormous positive humanitarian impact, but its implications for our economic and national security are consequential, as well," FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said in the statement.

QIS is an emerging field that has the possibility driving innovations across the American economy, according to the FBI.

Adversarial nations, however, also are investing "heavily" in QIS research and development. The FBI said it partnered with the National Counterintelligence Task Force to protect the "quantum research and development landscape."

"The Quantum Information Science Counterintelligence Protection Team leverages partnerships across government, academia and private industry to protect progress in this field and thwart nation-state and other adversaries' efforts to steal innovations," Abbate said.

Quantum computers harness the laws of quantum mechanics to encode exponentially more information and calculate solutions to complex problems faster than the largest supercomputers.

The full range of potential applications for QIS is unknown, but researchers expect QIS will be useful for solving optimization problems, choosing the best alternative from a large range of options.