Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro can now make quantum-encrypted phone calls. But are they really hack proof?

China Telecom Quantum Group debuts new device for Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro that it says can prevent eavesdropping
But despite ‘triple protection’ strategy, the technology is not completely immune to hacking, industry insiders say

Science

Dannie Peng

Published: 6:00am, 16 Nov 2023

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The tremors have barely settled since Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies in August unveiled its new Mate 60 Pro, a 5G smartphone that featured a cutting edge processor heralded as a giant technological leap for China.

There were more surprises to come, it turned out.

On Monday, China Telecom Quantum Group, in collaboration with Huawei, introduced the Huawei Mate 60 Pro Quantum Secure Call Customized Terminal – a smart device that is equipped with quantum encryption technology. According to the company, this effectively makes it impossible for anyone to eavesdrop on a secured call.

The device was debuted at the 2023 Digital Technology Ecology Conference in Guangzhou, in southern China’s Guangdong province, according to an article on China Telecom Quantum Group’s official social media account. The joint venture was formed in 2020 by China Telecom – one of the country’s three state-owned telecom companies – and quantum information tech firm QuantumCTek Group.

The Mate 60 Pro handset stunned the tech community when it was launched in August. Sporting an advanced chip and soaring sales, it has since been hailed by domestic consumers as a symbol of China’s ability to overcome tough US trade sanctions.

Most current smartphones are based on chips and operating systems developed by American companies, some reportedly hacked by the CIA. Huawei, which in 2019 was added to a US blacklist that cut off its access to advanced US technology, has turned to its home-made 9100S CPU and Harmony operating system to power its devices.

The Chinese government has reportedly gifted Huawei phones to top officials from “friendly countries” such as Venezuela and Serbia.

The new quantum terminal features a “triple protection” strategy, using a domestically produced chip, algorithms that are classified as state secrets, and a quantum security SIM card for enhanced security.

According to the article, the Mate 60 Pro handset can be upgraded to make quantum-encrypted phone calls directly through the native dial pad. The device can also encrypt file transfers and instant messaging, as well as other functions through a pre-installed quantum secure messaging app.

China Telecom has emphasised self-reliance in its latest product, stressing that the new terminal uses a domestically produced chip and home-grown quantum security middleware. The company said the customised Huawei Mate 60 Pro is intended for situations where communication security is imperative.

“This type of encrypted communication can only be achieved between terminals with this feature. It can be used in sectors such as public security,” said Wang Chao, general manager of XT Quantech, a Shanghai-based company that uses quantum technology to provide information security solutions.

But industry insiders have said the technology cannot offer true quantum communication, which involves encoding information directly onto quantum bits and transferring information in a quantum state. Instead, they said, “quantum encryption” is just one commercial application of quantum technology.

Encryption processes involve the generation of random numbers. A scientist, who researches quantum communication at a top mainland university, and wished to remain anonymous, told the Post that the core idea of the technology is to transform the way the random numbers are generated – from traditional methods to a quantum-based one.

“Smartphones capable of making quantum-secure calls are functionally similar to their traditional counterparts,” Zheng Jiasheng, director of China Telecom Quantum Group, told the state-owned Science and Technology Daily in 2020.

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“The difference lies in the incorporation of quantum keys prepared using quantum information technology,” Zheng said.

Implementing the technology is not particularly challenging, according to Zheng. Telecom operators pre-load quantum keys – true random numbers generated by a quantum random number generator – into the specially designed quantum security SIM card. “These cards are not quantum chips,” Zheng stressed.

Making a quantum phone call generates two secret keys to verify the caller’s identity and the information of the call, thereby ensuring end-to-end encryption.

Users can get the new feature by visiting a shop to purchase the special SIM card and download their own limited number of exclusive keys. Once the keys run out, customers must refill them at a nearby outlet, similar to refuelling a car.

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China Telecom began offering quantum secure calls to a limited number of users through a pilot programme at the beginning of 2021, with a goal to provide the service to more than 10 million mobile users within five years.

This particular application of quantum technology is not new. In 2020, for instance, South Korean telecoms operator SK Telecom partnered with Samsung to launch the first quantum encryption 5G smartphone – the Galaxy A Quantum – based on similar technological principles.

The only difference is that the Galaxy A Quantum series, including its latest Galaxy Quantum 3, launched in 2022, operate on the Android system, while Huawei’s latest Mate handset runs on its own Harmony 4.0 operating system.

“The security keys are truly random and difficult to decipher, and they are immediately invalidated after the call session ends,” the company said in its article.

While the technology was “relatively mature”, the quantum communication scientist cautioned that it was “impossible” to expect it to be completely immune to hacking, unlike real-time quantum key distribution technology, which has seen limited applications in finance and transportation.

Despite the fact that the quantum phone call feature can ensure the randomness of keys according to quantum principles, the new product cannot eliminate eavesdropping since it lacks a quantum physical mechanism in the distribution process, according to several insiders.