Cyprus and Greece Establish Quantum-Secure Satellite Link

Insider Brief

• Cyprus and Greece have established their first quantum-secure satellite data connection using Sparkle’s Quantum Safe Interconnect (QSI) system and Hellas Sat’s satellite infrastructure.
• The connection links Sparkle’s data centre in Athens with Hellas Sat infrastructure in Cyprus, with data travelling about 72,000 kilometres through the satellite system.
• The companies said the trial demonstrates how software-based quantum-safe protection can be applied to existing terrestrial and satellite networks to address harvest-now-decrypt-later risks.

Cyprus and Greece have established their first quantum-secure satellite data connection, Sparkle and Hellas Sat, a satellite operator serving Greece and Cyprus, announced on Wednesday, in a development aimed at protecting communications against future cyber threats, the Cyprus Mail reported.

The connection links Sparkle‘s data centre in Metamorfosi, Athens, with Hellas Sat infrastructure in Cyprus, following earlier successful testing of a secure IPsec connection between two data centres in Greece. The latest trial extends that protection to a live satellite connection between the two countries, with data travelling approximately 72,000 kilometres through the satellite system, including the uplink from Cyprus to the satellite and the subsequent downlink to Greece.