Crypto4A announces $7.5m Quantum-Safe Secure Manufacturing Initiative in conjunction with the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
(Ottawa, Canada – February 27, 2024)
Crypto4A Technologies Inc. (Crypto4A), a Canadian company, announced a $7.5-million Quantum-Safe Secure Manufacturing Initiative with a $3.75-million repayable contribution from the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario). Crypto4A’s quantum-ready hardware security products, QxHSM™ and QxEDGE™, are designed, developed and manufactured in Ontario. This repayable contribution will accelerate the company’s ability to address evolving fundamental security threats while supporting the manufacturing sector of Ontario by creating more than 50 new jobs.
The funding is through the Regional Quantum Initiative, launched to further accelerate the development of the quantum sector and drive product development in this world-class quantum ecosystem.
Southern Ontario is well positioned for quantum breakthroughs because we are home to world-leading research centres and high-potential quantum companies. Businesses in this sector are creating incredible technologies and our government is providing support so they can bring them to market faster, advancing Canada’s role as a world leader in quantum technologies, said the Honourable Filomena Tassi, Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.
With this announcement, our government is strengthening Canada’s position in quantum technology and helping to boost economic growth and create good jobs for Canadians. Through these investments, we will continue to build this sector and support made-in-Canada technologies that will have a major impact on industries like computing, communications, security and health care, said Bryan May, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Small Business and to the Minister responsible for FedDev Ontario.
The Quantum-Safe Secure Manufacturing Initiative is designed to make Ontario and Canada world leaders in the Smart Manufacturing Industry 4.0 sector by enabling quantum-safe manufacturing processes. Advanced manufacturing in Canada is estimated to contribute $13.5 billion to the national GDP and is expected to provide 13,000 jobs to Canadians in the coming years. This project will help create an environment where products manufactured in a smart manufacturing environment will be quantum-safe from the moment they are fabricated and for the entirety of their lifecycle.
We are thrilled to receive this repayable contribution from FedDev Ontario for our Quantum-Safe Secure Manufacturing Initiative. The funding will allow us to truly make Ontario and Canada world leaders in Smart Manufacturing. This is especially true for critical infrastructure components that must be manufactured with high-assurance, quantum-safe roots of trust injected during their manufacturing process,” said Bruno Couillard, co-founder and CEO of Crypto4A.
The Internet is expected to experience 500 percent growth in interconnected devices over the next five years. Much of this growth will be fueled by the massive deployment of 5G-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) devices required to accommodate smart cities, smart manufacturing, smart grid and other AI concepts. It is critical that we protect against the cyber-attacks of today, but also against quantum enabled attacks in the future.
The anticipated lifecycle of these devices can be anywhere from 5 to 25 years or more. Quantum computing advances are expected to allow the breaking of existing classical cryptographic algorithms within the lifespan of many devices. It is crucial that these devices designed to operate for multiple tens-of-years be secured at manufacturing time with quantum-safe cryptographic identities.
This initiative to ensure the privacy of Canadians and the protection of Canadian assets, will protect and create jobs and deliver economic benefits in advanced manufacturing, securing the critical electronic infrastructure that underpins our digital economy. To mitigate the global skills shortage in cybersecurity and support cost management and scalability, this solution will be offered as a service and centrally managed from a trusted Canadian sovereign cloud platform, allowing customers to focus on their core strengths while safely running their businesses.
About QxHSM
QxHSM™ is a quantum-safe crypto-agile network-attached Hardware Security Module (HSM) in a revolutionary modular blade form factor that provides the cryptographic agility, mobility, and scalability needed to keep up with rapid advances in technology, ensures true ownership of cryptographic assets without vendor lock-in, and supports flexible cloud-scale deployment architectures while adapting to changing markets, standards, and requirements.
With a 300 percent increase in rack deployment density when compared to traditional network-attached HSMs, multiple deployment configurations, transparent and all-inclusive pricing, coupled with a future-proof agile architecture, QxHSM™ ensures a lower total cost of ownership and operational efficiencies across its extended lifetime.
About QxEDGE
QxEDGE™ is a fully integrated and hyper-converged Hardware Security Platform (HSP) that combines a quantum-safe crypto-agile HSM, with multiple general-purpose and confidential compute processing engines. It is fully programmable and extensible to enable organizations to deliver customized solutions to meet their unique needs. QxEDGE™ comes with a full development environment, existing partner integrations, and tools allowing teams to rapidly develop and deploy customized solutions at scale.
Software-defined, hardware-enforced confidential compute capabilities in QxEDGE™ are provided using our patented Trusted Communication Matrix (TCMx™) to enable a trusted runtime environment with secure network zoning and processing engine isolation. Leveraging multiple onboard isolated processing engines, complex solutions and workloads are executed in an environment that prevents unauthorized access or modification of applications, data, keys, and algorithms.
About Crypto4A
Crypto4A Technologies Inc. is a Canadian cybersecurity technology company providing industry leading, fifth-generation quantum-safe crypto-agile Hardware Security Modules (HSM), Hardware Security Platforms (HSP), and PQC Migration Solutions. Its products and solutions provide processing capabilities for classic and quantum-safe cryptography that is built in — not bolted on. Crypto4A enables the cryptographic agility, mobility, and scalability demanded by enterprises and government agencies to secure their digital assets and infrastructure while adapting to changing markets, standards, and requirements.
About FedDev Ontario
For 14 years, the Government of Canada, through FedDev Ontario, has worked to advance and diversify the southern Ontario economy through funding opportunities and business services that support innovation, growth and job creation in Canada’s most populous region. The Agency has delivered impressive results, which can be seen in southern Ontario businesses that are creating innovative technologies, improving productivity, growing revenues, creating jobs, and in the economic advancement of communities across the region. Learn more about the impacts the Agency is having in southern Ontario by exploring our pivotal projects, our Southern Ontario Spotlight, and FedDev Ontario’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
For further information, contact:
John O’Connor, Vice President of Product Management, Crypto4A
Edward Hutchinson, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario