With a career spanning 20 years, Lory Thorpe has one of those stories that is both inspiring and impressive. At present, Thorpe serves as, IBM Consulting’s industry partner for telco transformation as well as chairwoman of the GSMA’s post-quantum telco network taskforce.
Quantum is one of those technologies that everyone holds a lot of promise for, but its exact applications have yet to be fully developed. One clear use case from a telco perspective, however, is networking security.
Capacity's Natalie Bannerman speaks to Thorpe about Quantum and its place within network security and innovation.
One such aspect is quantum key distribution (QKD). Simply put, QKD is a form of secure communications. It uses the quantum physics of light to generate random keys (the bits of information usually numbers and letters) for encrypting and decrypting data ensuring that the transmission cannot be interfered with and guaranteeing its security.
“The application of quantum on security is one of the areas where I see it having a big impact on telecoms,” she says. “But I also see quantum computing having beneficial impacts on a number of different use case but that will need developing over time.”
For Lory and her team over at IBM, the work they’ve been doing is around post quantum cryptography.
“We believe that from a security standpoint, post quantum cryptography (PQC) is something that will apply to legacy networks and potentially will be complemented by QKD, but we think that post quantum cryptography is needed to underpin any other any other solutions that come into play,” she says.
PQC refers to the development of cryptographic (the hiding or coding information that can only be read by the intended recipient) systems and algorithms that are secure against an attack by a quantum computer and that is interoperable with existing communications networks.
Security aside the applications of quantum are seemingly limitless. As Thorpe points out anything related to optimisation and machine learning are all opportunities where quantum computing could play a role.
“We're also doing some work with some of our clients around end-to-end replacement or optimisation of spectrum resources. These are some of the areas where the capabilities become easier to apply to some of these some of these problems.”
When we think of quantum computing and its relationship to AI, it can be a little chicken or the egg. Is AI laying the foundations for quantum computing, or is quantum computing accelerating and enhancing AI technology?
Quantum and ai
As AI is already a reality today, perhaps it’s a little more of the former than the latter. However, Thorpe points out that “quantum could provide some capabilities that would make AI easier or cheaper to use”.
Specifically, if we think if we think about some of the challenges around computing limitations for AI, she believes that's something that quantum combined with classical computing could help with.
“These are two technologies that I see on parallel tracks with some intersections coming up at various points in time,” she says.
The trajectory for real-life quantum deployments and even standards, however, is a slightly more complicated picture. On the PQC side of things, “that is very much in progress” according to Thorpe who sees this first-hand as part of the GSMA’s post-quantum telco network taskforce.
“It is one the forums where we are looking at making sure that post quantum cryptography is embedded into telco capabilities going forward. We’re working with the various standards bodies at having quantum safe as part of future technologies like 6G as well as how to upgrade legacy networks with this quantum safe element as well.”
Quantum Safe is a big part of IBM’s roadmap and the company is actively developing a comprehensive set of tools for securing enterprise for the quantum future.
“IBM has been involved for almost a decade now in developing post quantum cryptography algorithms. So much so, that three of the four post quantum cryptography algorithms we expect to be standardised in 2024 with The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), were co-developed by IBM.”
Her story
Thorpe’s own route into the tech space started off with her studying as an engineer in Rome, at a time when “not many women were studying engineering”, she says.
With many people questioning why she would want to enter the field and encouraging her to do something ‘more normal’, Thorpe was lucky enough to find support at home, and unofficial mentors in her academic and career journey.
“I started working in telecoms in the 90s. There were hardly any women around and those that were worked in either HR or were PAs,” she explains.
Looking back at the time from a social standpoint, Thorpe is amazed at how much things have progressed describing some of her former experiences as ‘horror stories’ by today’s standards.
In her own hiring processes, she is rather aggressive in making sure that HR doesn’t turn up with strictly male candidates and encourages as much all-round diversity as possible. But its also about getting ahead of the curve and engaging more woman and those from diverse groups much sooner.
“You can't start this conversation at the university stage, it is too late. We need to be starting much earlier. I was very lucky because my parents always gave me the freedom to do what I wanted to do and the belief that I could do anything I wanted. Not everybody has that,” she says.
Acknowledging that she too once faced imposter syndrome at one point or another, things are much better for women in the space than they were before. The full circle moment for Thorpe, however, is watching her daughter, now a structural engineer carve out her out her own space in another male dominated field.
“Sometimes she'll send me pictures because it's literally 60-year-old white men and she’s the only woman in the room,” she explains. “But I always remind her that she’s very good at her job. She knows what she’s talking about. This will help her form a thick skin and that she can overcome those obstacles, just like I did.”
