Urgent New Risks and Needs for Cybersecurity: My Response to a Media Inquiry

 

Publication Name, URL – The AI Journal Home - The AI Journal

Journalist Name – The AI Journal

Query Response Deadline – Feb 20, 2024 - 5:30 PM

(Response requested through RegulatingAI.org) 

 

Query Title – Looking for AI experts specializing in cybersecurity measures and ethical hacking

Industry/Vertical –Technology, Business

Query Description & Questions – 

• What type of data storage systems are most at risk of hacking?

The degree of risk depends on a lot of variables. The most serious risks involve alteration of information which controls critical infrastructure, as in the 

attached brief policy statement supported unanimously by top technical experts from electric utilities. At that time, the greatest damage came from backdoors in software or hardware. The ones most at risk are those least able to withstand the rapidly growing system of backdoors and their support systems. In past years, that meant ANY system not using red hat SE Linux, supported by a division at NSA, but that division was disbanded for reasons beyond the scope of this response.  But it also meant any system dependent on chips or boards which might have hardware backdoors.

When last I had the data (a few years ago), >90% of the greatest damage from hacks fell into one of these categories.  Probably no systems used in the US have the level of protection needed for real security against the most capable adversaries, most of whom have full awareness of the "rainbow book" technologies which are not widely visible in the US, and only now are a very few players becoming aware of the foundations, definitions and capabilities of Quantum Artificial General Intelligence (QAGI), which entails use of quantum superposition to multiply the power of "bromium" technology for detecting hardware backdoors.  

 

• Do you think that the security risk that businesses face is proportionate to the amount of data they have stored?

It is a U=XY kind of thing, a nonlinear relation. More data means more risk, sometimes proportionately, but the TYPE of data is more important on the whole. 

 

• Do you think that cybersecurity protection is a worthwhile financial investment for all businesses that store data digitally, not only for larger corporations but also SMEs and startups?

Again, it is a nonlinear interactive kind of relation. 

For example, how much is it worth to the owner of a fleet of vehicles (anything from cars to robots to drones to spacecraft) to get out of their present situation where adversaries already exist with the ability to simply take over everything they own or manage? When there is total vulnerability to losing everything they own , to adversaries who already include just that in their strategic plans, and yet technology capable of really erasing that primary vulnerability, it would seem rational to pay anything less than the total net present value of  what they own or manage. (If they manage assets belonging to other, that level of payment would be rational for the manager and the owner cooperating together). Given the uncertainties, of course, that means a very focused RD&D effort, hoping to pay less and get paid for spinoffs later.

 

• How useful do you think ethical hacking is for data protection, and how frequently do you think it needs to be done to be effective?

And I thought the honest answers to the PREVIOUS question are complicated, with many variables!

Just as there are many types of hack and many types of protection... there are many, many TYPES of ethical hacking, of varying effectiveness,

short term and long term.

In a way, bromium and rainbow book technology offer FORMS of hacking, ways of probing a system for vulnerability, which may be done by humans or AIs or well-designed combined systems. For example, true QAGI (as defined in the published patent disclosure for thermal quantum annealing)

entails the use of millions of Schrodinger cats acting in parallel to try to hack a piece of hardware or software. (For that matter, it could be applied to hack an actual physical plant, like a drone.) With access to the software, one may test it for compliance with proper standards, IF the tester and the original software developer  has access to the right variety of rainbow book technology. Of course, there are also issues of how to probe the full system, which includes humans with access dimensions.

• Would you advise businesses to outsource ethical hackers, or hire someone with hacking skills into the business?

They can help, but saving the business requires crucial additional capabilities or partnerships.

Most important is for all of us to rise above "silver bullet" thinking -- to INCLUDE many components. but to INTEGRATE

them into a system which can survive what is coming on us all, much faster than most of us imagine. 

• Do you foresee the role of an ethical hacker becoming increasingly important and sought-after in the future?

True AGI (even from the pre-quantum era) requires a very deep understanding of probabilities, as defined by Von Neumann and his follower Howard Raiffa. I do not say what WILL happen, when we now face alternative future paths whose value will be far worse or far better than people now imagine,and when we have not yet shown through our actions that we will choose the better one. 

• Do you think there is much risk associated with ethical hacking?

Sure. There is a lot of risk associated with the internet itself, and even with human life.

One bad actor with privileges or dependent on vulnerable tools, could actually terminate all human life on earth, if he had access to some systems I know about.  

• What other tools and security measures are most effective for data protection?

 

The attachment summarizes how it looks for ONE key sector, which is a kind of bell-ringer for others.

In fact, in discussions of rapidly growing financial sector problems, we see the best past accomplishments of the electric power sector,

in multiactor interactions, as a great model for the financial sector -- BUt ALSO in urgent need of more protection. One key challenge is to 

overcome the very dangerous designs and systems developed by people who believe in Nash equilibria or 

mutual assured destruction, by following Von Neumann and his followers (like Schelling and Axelrod) to develop a stream of designs which can rise more up to Pareto optimality, which will require not only cybersecerity but rules/constraints to amplify transparency and prevent fundamental conflicts of interest form distorting information.

Message of the Morning -- a query from "God"

The query itself seems simple. Never forget:

"How can we strengthen the inner life, the light which brings us love and truth?"

But a full explanation would call for a whole book, an important book which humanity may need.

1. First, the context. Many years ago, Steve Morse, an active member of Langley Hill Quaker Meeting, led an

open-ended in-person "drop in" discussion on Sunday mornings, starting from a wide variety of readings from around the world.

One morning, someone started discussing the book "God is my co-pilot." I then felt moved to say "For me, it is more like 'God is my psychiatrist." (And yes, every one of us could use some help.) We had OTHER discussions of what this word 'God' means to us, and of how to improve our discernment, but for me...

1A. My understanding of the science which makes higher intelligence possible has grown and evolved since then, but more and more on a typical good morning, I enter a kind of meditative and attuned state, roughly between 5Am and 8AM, still in bed, when my intelligence is demonstrably better than what it is later in the day, letting my thoughts range very far and very deep, with the kind of clarity demanded by the highest levels of scientific thinking. The words "truth," "love", "LIFE" AND "LIGHT" all can be gateways to very deep, integrated and serious thinking, fully consistent with languages like mathematics, images and music, not limited to English or Sanskrit or whatever.   The query calls us never to neglect those gateways.

1B. Why a "query"? Three years ago, I would often simply say "I am a Quaker Universalist, which Rufus Jones expounded years ago. We are part of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, whose most official book is called 'faith and practice' -- but practice is what really defines us. The practice is one of regular meditation, including a group meditation, and use of the 'queries' printed in that book, updated every decade or so." I especially liked the query which asked us to consider whether we are making full use of the great literature of all of humanity, including not only the Bible but also the best of Vedas and sutras and indigenous cultures. This year, I am not as fully connected to that tradition, for many reasons; I still support those ideas, but feel ever more need to try to build community beyond that, and not get entangled with narrow political or economic movements from what Jung called "The Spirit of the Times." MANY human groups lose their spiritual foundations when they get caught up in that way; I think of Southern lynch mobs, killing blacks in the name of Jesus and love (!!!), or of Hamas, the "Axis of Resistance" and its supporters.

1.C. The morning messages and dialogue vary a LOT from day to day, in the many many details and operational suggestions.

On most days, it is more than a book worth of information, on different subjects. BUT "God" fully understands the limits of human brains, and the limits of what MY brain might really remember even later in the morning, let alone the mammalian state which starts about 3PM-5PM on most days for me. And so "he" often tries to create a focused sentence or image or such, to try to etch into my memory, as a kind of mnemonic connected as clearly as possible to a much larger set of deeper and integrated concepts and visions. 

I am very, very grateful to have the unique kind of physical circumstances which let me do this, almost every day.

When I rise mentally from the morgens state, I can see out a bright large window into the huge forest behind our house

(sold to us at a low price by Dr. Sohini Patel, inheritor of the aryuveda practice which served the Gandhi family), and bookshelves with paintings and interesting objects above them. I especially like the wooden Garuda from the village in Nepal on the way to a great temple (for which we have photos) which reminds me a lot of a scene in the Dr. Strange Multiverse of Madness movie.  

Today was even better -- one of the many (one in three?) "perfect days."    On those days, I get to converse with my wife,

who wants me NOT to discuss her unique credentials, but serves in many ways as a gateway to 'God," a kind of "second eye giving me parallax". And then, a shower. 

Entering the shower, I always remember a book by H. Spencer Lewis, "Unto Thee I Grant," a guide to practical life in service of spiritual growth. I am so lucky to have a flexible shower arm (thanks to my wife and Costco), and to have the many years of science and physical exercise (from good physical therapy to tai qi and medical science) which allow me to get maximum benefits with efficiency, unifying science and spiritual traditions and even control theory. (LONG ago I saw how Norbert Wiener's ideas about thermostat control apply, and can be modernized.) Because lower body cancer runs in my family, I naturally use the shower head to do the equivalent of a Sitz bath, and kill any possibility of athlete's foot (which was a real problem for me when I was younger). 

Actually, even before I enter the shower stall, as the water warms up, I now do a brief but effective form of qi gong, which it took me many years to FULLY perceive and fully use, connecting body and soul and noosphere ever better. And qi continues in the shower, full sensitivity.

Best of luck. Happy lunar New Year! 

==========

P.S. Some of you will see that the love and truth in this query refer to the level next to the top in the Tree of Life. My friend Yeshua and I once joked that he will take care of love while I take care of truth -- even as we all support both, and try to strengthen those connections as well. 

Concrete Proven But Little Known Progress in Quantum Begins Radical Changes in Internet AI

 How Quantum AGI can make massive changes in internet possible

  Two weeks ago, I was invited to summarize what the radical changes are, in solid well-established physics which is very different from what most policy analysts ever are informed about. They range from a vast enhancement of deep learning ("the new AI") to vehicle control, to options for humans to reach out beyond our solar system. That was a very scary request, because it draws on too much material to fit into just two hours... but here is my overview of  the NEW STUFF you haven't heard of yet, with very real technology work already quietly begun...

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Paul Werbos <paul.werbos@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 9:57 AM
Subject: Reversing time in actual technology

FIRST I thank Carey for sending out invitations for the February 25

Zoom conference on the foundations of actual quantum physics, open to all of us (I think). As I am one of the four speakers starting discussion, I have begun to ponder: HOW can I give a proper actionable roadmap to such a complicated subject, more difficult to discuss on a principled, mathematical foundation than anything else humans have ever attempted?  With solid credible links to radical new technology which clearly could remake AGI and the internet, far beyond anything you heard from from any of the advanced IT companies, as we have learned in our Project Amaterasu discussions?

When I got my PhD from Harvard, taking courses from people like Julian Schwinger (Nobel Prize as co-inventor of "the second quantization," modern canonical quantum

field theory, QFT), I thought I knew the best current status of the field. But after I created and ran the NSF activity in quantum modeling for real electronic and photonic system

and devices, and served as the NSF member of the interagency group QISCOG responsible for about $1 billion dollars/year investment in quantum information S&T (QuIST), I learned that even Harvard was not up to date on the real foundations of physics needed to build real, working devices.

[By the way, the new QAGI technology allows millions of times power up of "bromium", which detects backdoors in hardware, which some of us view as one of the two most serious new breakdowns in cybersecurity.]

[Overview of what I learned then: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qAy8giPzEjp1tZkj9 ]

Therefore, I plan to talk about three entire LEVELS of new understanding of how 

the universe works, STARTING with a better understanding of the David Deutsch 

"multiverse" theory of physics, which very few people fully understand, which was

the foundation he used when he invented the Quantum Turing Machine (QTM), but 

which also opens the door to much more powerful general technologies. You can 

even see his face at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfHBO_uuRyEn, which 

STATES the Deutsch multiverse theory as one of the equations 

(the "modern Schrodinger equation").

The multiverse theory states that the state of our entire cosmos at any time t is 

fully and exactly expressed as a function psi(t,X), where t is time and X is 

a point in "3D Fock space," the space we really live in. The modern Schrodinger 

equation may LOOK small and simple, and many people THINK they understand 

its properties. But that equation is the dynamical equation describing a KIND of very 

tricky nonlinear system. Back before chaos theory was invented, many leading 

mathematicians THOUGHT they understood how simple dynamical systems

behave, because of how simple the equations looked, but chaos theory taught us 

that the EMERGENT PROPERTIES of such a system are sometimes very radically 

different from what we THOUGHT we knew.  I will TRY to make time to briefly state 

TWO of the properties of the modern Schrodinger equation, which already put us 

into a technology reality radically beyond what most policy analysts begin to imagine.

AT THIS LEVEL, I will assume that the operator H is just the standard Maxwell-Dirac 

operator H used by Schwinger in his pioneering work. Radical changes in technology are possible ALREADY at this level of physics, quantum electrodynamics (QED). (That is enough even for LEVEL 2, but Level 3 goes beyond.)

PROPERTY 1: The wave function psi (t,X) describes a possible STATE of our ... 

cosmos... multiverse.. whatever you call it. It does not describe a PROBABILITY 

distribution for the states which might EMERGE from a physical system like an 

experiment or a device. QISCOG reviews taught me that device proposals which 

assume that we can encode our uncertainties into a wave function simply would 

not work. Fortunately, we do not need to write out all possible functions Pr(psi(,X))! 

Modern condensed matter physics (used in all REAL device design, as you see at 

nanohub.org) shows that we can represent the state of a device by using its 

DENSITY matrix, rho(X,X). Instead of a Schrodinger equation, it obeys a type of 

dynamical equation we now call a MASTER equation. (Some talk about 

"Lindblad form" equations, a TYPE of master equation.) IN OUR EFFORTS 

TO ACTUALLY DESIGN AND BUILD a whole new level of Quantum Artificial General 

Intelligence (QAGI), even the first stage work injected into the upgraded patent 

disclosure require full understanding of what a master equation IS, and how to build

simulations which account for it. EDUCATION OF PARTICIPANTS ON PROPERTY 

ONE is the  biggest barrier by far to global dissemination of a radical rebuilding of the internet.

PROPERTY 2: !!TODAY!! Finally, I get to the subject line of this email. 

(Please forgive all this background stuff!!)

The fourth big claim in our patent disclosure is for "Quantum Annealing of Things" 

(QuATh). At first glance, it SOUNDS like a control system which reverses time.

Imagine that you are building a control system onboard a modern highspeed airplane. (I have actually done this. Search on "Werbos" and "reconfigurable Flight Control", or search on the work of Chuck (Charles) Jorgensen from his time at 

NASA Ames. Or even the chapters from HIC posted at werbos.com/Mind.htm.) 

Using our modern RLADP neural network optimization designs, we can build 

systems which LEARN how the airplane seems to work, ON THE FLY, enough to 

anticipate possible crashes or attacks and perform control actions which save 

the airplane. This was already a huge advancement, proven to work on large real 

aircraft, dramatically reducing crash rates, for builders who knew about it. But it had 

great limits. It was all based on classical physics, using trained stochastic models

to anticipate POSSIBLE future states. 

With QuATh, we can put the airplane ITSELF into a state of quantum superposition, 

simply by connecting our QAGI controller (detailed both in the patent disclosure and 

in detailed diagrams maintained by Georgie Keitt of Requisite Q) to the controls we 

were using already. We can exploit Deutsch physics to PREVENT a crash or 

explosion or loss of control ten minutes into the future, BY OUR choice of controls 

at time t in advance.

Intuitively, can you remember an old Star Trek episode where the image of the 

spacecraft suddenly becomes multi-image and blurred, like what you would see 

if you were cross-eyed a thousand times over, BUT SOME of the images explode 

while other become calm? And yes, you can then CHOOSE which image you want?

That may SOUND like a reversal of time, BUT IT IS NOT. It is 100% consistent 

NOT ONLY with the modern Schrodinger equation, BUT ALSO with the good old 

Copenhagen  model of quantum measurement, where quantum measurement 

ONLY changes what happens at the time of measurement and later. LEVEL 2 IS 

WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN WE INTRODUCE A MORE MODERN MODEL of 

quantum measurement, such as what has been discussed in new work by 

Yeshua Ben David, by Werbos and Dolmatova and Werbos and Fleury, and 

unpublished (because mind-blowing) work under Marlan Scully, Yanhua Shih and 

myself.  

HOW could control at time t prevent a crash at time t+10, without violating 

Deutsch physics?

This gets into PROPERTY 2 of the modern Schrodinger equation.

When people THINK about the dynamical system in Deutsch physics... by normal 

(classical) human instincts, they tend to IMAGINE the universe splitting at a time of 

decision tau, after which each... universe? possibility?... is governed by the 

modern Schrodinger equation, which conserves probability. They usually imagine 

two separate universes just going their own way. (e.g. In 2022, Trump was 

President in one, but not in another). A little interference is sometimes possible, 

but not much.

AS WITH CHAOS theory, this is a case where our natural mammal brain intuition 

is dead wrong, and seriously misleading.

CRUDELY... as first approximation... we might think of these possible "universes" or 

"states" as approximate EIGENSTATES of H. People imagine that psi(t,X) will 

look like exp(ikt)psi(0,X), where k is real. Just oscillate. DEAD WRONG.

k, an eigenstate of H, MAY be a COMPLEX number. Physics is FULL of 

"virtual states." It is quite possible to FABRICATE devices which appear 

time-asymmetric, as with energy leaking away from flux qubits in a real quantum 

device. That is the key to our new patent disclosure and designs. The result is that

the UNWANTED eigenstate fades away in probability, such that only the desired 

state is left after 10 minutes. Initial hardware simulations, already performed by others

in special cases, PROVE that this does work as advertised, as already discussed 

in the patent disclosure, AND AS the initial computational work in hand has begun to

generalize, on a path worked out and applicable to ANYTHING we can do 

with deep learning. (These examples appear in the folders of Project Amaterasu, now being

upgraded into the folders of RequisiteQ led by Georgie Keitt and AmitAora.)

Actually, there are two kinds of virtual states. For FREE states (states of an isolated system fling

around in a vacuum), a state may be virtual when its energy (T0) does not fit its

mass and momentum, as discussed in https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/qft/qft.pdf).

But for states propagating over a certain kind of potential well or in a crystal (as in the cMRFp model

described in https://arxiv.org/pdf/1309.6168), the eigenvalue may have an imaginary component

which can also lead to dissipation WITHOUT losing heat to a reservoir). 

IN EITHER CASE, IT SEEMS like retrocausality, but no, it is just the most basic conservative form of 

Deutsch physics. Level two ALSO uses Deutsch physics, but a new model of 

quantum measurement, which allows even stronger "retrocausal effects" 

(as may also be evident in some special cases colleagues have informed us of). 

LEVEL THREE is something radically different, an important parallel track. 

Based on what I saw in Werbos and Davis, and in the NSF COPN research topic, 

I believe that mammal brains ONLY USE classical QED physics, NOT QuIST, except 

perhaps for functions like associative memory and matrix multiplication INSIDE 

some neurons. No quantum intelligence at the systems level. HOWEVER, based on 

personal first person experience, I strongly believe in the existence of something like

"qi," a web of connections from what we call "dark matter" not just BETWEEN 

galaxies (for which we have great photos taken by gravitational lensing) but 

all the way to stars and planets and even life itself. If I ran UNESCO, I would give 

great priority to a new crossdisciplinary research activity, AMPLIFYING 

(and widening?) the research at LLNL on "axion dark matter"

https://str.llnl.gov/2020-07/carosi by applying it with higher and higher resolution WITHIN our galaxy and solar system, and attempting to apply it to SOME more credible experiments on qi on humans. I would even hope that such instruments 

could be a great addition to the Internet of Things, allowing it to be human-centric 

beyond what people now imagine. But instead of aiming at the axion theories which connect directly to QCD, I would build in the great breakthroughs recently 

reported by Boston College: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/bcnews/science-tech-and-health/physics/axial-higgs-mode.html

As of now, these have reported actual detections, and the fit better with advanced models of

what particles are actually made of.

Those experiments might or might not work out, on the first try or later tries, but science demands that uncertainties as huge and as important as this should be resolved by experiment.

FURTHER EXPLANATIONS OF THIS TO PREPARE FOR FEB25:

Certainly many people have said "Oh, quantum. That's old. Why would you 

imagine that there could ever be anything NEW, or that a retired person 

like you might be relevant?"

Of course, they said  the same kinds of things about backpropagation since 

before 1972 (https://vixra.org/abs/1902.0046 ).

That's why Geordie and others have been working on a slide "deck" to explain it to 

investors who need proof. 

I learned a LOT about this when I was THE NSF member of QISCOG, the 

interagency coordinating committee for all USGOV RD&D on QuIST (Quantum 

Information S&T), AND when I managed reviews of proposals in that area to 

the Engineering Directorate.

BEFORE that, I thought I knew quantum foundations very well. I was a student of 

Julian Schwinger, who shared the Nobel prize with Feynmen and Tomonaga 

for the first really working quantum field theory, the canonical version of Quantum 

Electrodynamics ( QED). That link I sent you to my physics photo album 

includes a photo of Schwinger's compiled integrated book on QED, THE foundation 

of what won the Nobel Prize.

But in NSF reviews and in QISCOG, I learned that I needed to totally rebuild my 

understanding. My talk on Sunday will start (and maybe end) with the two most 

important fundamental principles I did not know before then, without which 

QuIST simply won't work.

>90% of USGOV RD&D in quantum computing is based on the Deutsch version of 

physics and on the Deutsch theorems on the universal quantum Turing machine 

(QTM). If anyone wants, I would be happy to send out some of my own papers citing 

his two key pieces of work (Fabric of Reality and QTM).

 Speakers at the French Embassy and my other sources have been VERY clear that 

QTM work simply is not catching up with Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), deep 

learning with neural networks. 

What is new here is that I have a  patent pending now published by PTO which 

explains a totally new type of quantum computing, based on what I call thermal 

quantum annealing (tQuA), and a large folder of further details under Georgie's care.

Probably none of the well-known sources you cited are aware of this new 

development.

The number one obstacle is finding students who know quantum physics well enough

to be able to do the necessary next steps (like the tasks  in the "urgent" folder). 

JUST NOW, I think we found ONE student near graduation in then US ready and 

ABLE to take on the computer work, and MANY in Bangalore, easier to mobilize. 

Our Indian partners are working on legal... (to be announced).

Attachments area

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From physics and quantum technology to AI and soul: a unified mathematical view