QPUF: Quantum Physical Unclonable Functions for Security-by-Design of Industrial Internet-of-Things

This work presents a Quantum Computing based Physical Unclonable Functions (PUF) architecture with a novel approach for PUF key generation and noise reduction in noisy Quantum systems. The motivation is to explore the potential of Quantum Computing assisted cybersecurity for Security-by-Design (SbD) of Industrial-Internet-of-Things (IIoT). Internet-of-Things (IoT) in Industry 4.0 can improve efficiency, increase automation, and facilitate intelligent decision making through the integration of edge cloud computing paradigms. However, the lack of standardization of security protocols across IIoT devices can be challenging due to the heterogeneous nature of these devices. In this context, a novel Quantum circuits based PUF design that is built on real Quantum hardware is presented. The proposed QPUF can facilitate security in IIoT by using a Quantum hardware generated PUF key as the device identity. The proposed PUF Design is built using Quantum Hadamard Gate, and Ry gates and has been experimentally demonstrated on IBM Quantum hardware systems. The proposed architecture also supports PUF key generation from Quantum hardware for security applications. Figures-of-merits (FoM) of PUF have been evaluated and presented to demonstrate the robustness of the proposed Quantum PUF for SbD of IIoT.