Modern Security: Quantum Tech and Social Responsibility

So speaking of being geeky and just getting started and being dorky, I wear a CTO role for a chunk of the world and run enterprise emerging technology security. One of the things that I'm very passionate about, partly because I have no idea exactly where it's going to lead is around quantum technology. And I did an interview back home in Australia last week talking about quantum computing and the potential implications. So no doubt, I know because I spend time sometimes with your technical teams, is that this is an interesting area for Cloudflare as well. At Accenture, we have a relatively significant and growing quantum technologies group, so compute, sensing, communications, and security. We recently created a quantum security maturity framework in partnership with some other people. No doubt, we've also been very actively engaged with the World Economic Forum. So we're really interested in the implications for this, both on the positive side around compute and sensing and comms, but also what are the security implications. I know that you're already starting to embed in quantum security into a number of your activities. Yes, yeah, no. Well, I think it's back to this, the Internet's 30 years old. So there's just new, as we progress, people are learning new protocols, right? And how do you push it forward, make things better and better that you wouldn't have designed on day one now that we're 30 years in. I think post -quantum is really interesting because of, okay, it's going to come. It's this new evolution, this new innovation piece. And this idea of, well, all of our data that used to be secure could now no longer be, is a very visceral, nerve-wracking topic. The good news is there is solutions to that, including Cloudflare, and there are others as well, where we're already providing post-quantum protection to our customers. It's on by default, you can opt into it, it's working and we can see it's working. And so we're now, we're already in the first, second, third innings of a working solution so that organizations can say, oh, I have a solution here. It's not that the technology hasn't been invented yet. The technology exists. So now it's really about a distribution and deployment. And so that's really the piece that we're at. So I am, this is something where when people talk about it, I totally understand, but I'm like, oh, that's a solved problem. Like if you buy the right things, you'll be protected. But now we have to go get it deployed. So a very transparent question, since it's just the two of us and there's no one else. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yes. No one else. Just the two of us. So what I hear as I travel around the world, when I talk about quantum security, there are very clearly the occasional leader who says, I recognize new standards are coming. I recognize there'll be some compliance mechanisms, but there's a few leaders who don't wait for those things. What was your decision -making process that you decided, well, look, we're just going to go ahead and do this and make it by default rather than necessarily, was it purely around creating the competitive advantage or you just thought our clients deserve the best and this is our clearest way to just simply provide them the best by default? It's really, you took the words out of my mouth. Part of my marketing plan here. Yeah. No, no. It's really, you took the words right out of my mouth where for us, it's so important where when we have 20% of the web, as many customers as we have, over 25 million Internet properties using Cloudflare, you have to support all of the standards and protocols. You have to be part of it. And it's not about, oh, pay us more to get access to that. That's just has never been our ethos. This is back to helping to build a better Internet and making sure the Internet is the most secure, the most private, the most efficient, the fastest it can be. And so post-quantum is directly tied to security. We are a cybersecurity company, the most effective in the world. And so for us, it was a no-brainer of, of course, we need to get this out into the market so that people can start to benefit and start to see and can have peace of mind so they can get back to building their businesses and help serving their customers and not worrying about some new innovation thing that they don't quite understand. And so that was really part of the ethos. And this is just on post-quantum, but any new standard, any new protocol, that's what you can expect from Cloudflare. And again, it's back to playing our role in the ecosystem. We just think it's really foundational to who we are. Yeah. It's, I'm, I'm, I'm watching the, as you said, the, the, some of the key technologies have always been there, but they were never easy and functional, which in a world that expects utility, the cloud, the utility of cloud, it either has to be baked in as default or a check box fundamentally that says, I want a piece of that because this is, this data is really important. And we have generically not seen that ease of use, that utility yet. So I love the fact you've built it in. I'm seeing three areas, three sectors of, of, of key demand at the moment for PQC. Number one, no doubt around some key public sector agencies. I mean, I think the US really caught the world by surprise last year when the mandate came in for federal government agencies. So that's number one. I'm not necessarily seeing that, that, that mandate replicated around the world yet, but certainly there is the, the, the, the public sector agencies are noticing, well, if the US has done that, then perhaps there's a maturity issue that we should adopt or consider. But no doubt that, you know, that the Western world is choosing how to be a better partner with each other. Yes. Increasingly, we are sharing more information so that rules -based nations can work together for a safer and secure digital world. So I'm seeing that demand grow. Number two, no doubt financial services. This is an industry that is heavily regulated, but I'm not seeing our big financial services companies waiting for any new regulations to come through when it comes to post -quantum cryptography. They're just getting ahead a little bit like you and saying, we need to move down this track. And they're asking for help to understand the issues and hopefully that there are solutions to help them with that. Number three, really interesting third space, not one that I kind of ever foresaw, but automotive manufacturers. Oh, interesting. And the mechanism is that automotive manufacturers are like critical infrastructure providers. They are designing and building for five to 10 to 15 years down the track. And if you're going to walk down building a new car design, theoretically one that's going to engage autonomously with its built-in digital environment, that they're starting to embed post-quantum methodologies at least into what they're building for the future. And I get really excited when I think about this. Yes, no, it's amazing. Yes, very thought-provoking at the same time about autonomous vehicles. But here we are in San Francisco watching the Wavos going by and other things. So really clear areas of demand coming through, which is always nice when you see that early demand coming through for the things that you think that you've done well ahead of the curve. Well, you know, I am Canadian. Sorry, are you excited about this stuff, Michelle? Well, I was going to say I'm Canadian and so I love hockey. I'm a huge hockey fan. And so I always say you have to skate to where the puck is going, the old Wayne Gretzky quote. And so I think that you laid out that's where the puck is going. And there's always somebody who's first. There's always the fast followers and there's some of the laggards. But that's okay if we're there to help carry them around and say, hey, we can help you. And everyone's kind of a different distribution of people, how they're innovating and where they are. But that's definitely where the puck is going. And I'm excited to see how this whole industry develops and our partnership together. I have a question for you. We were talking before about mission and culture. You do this fascinating thing that this is an election year in the US and most of us are looking on around the world because we are in an industry that is meant to help protect people. And our purpose is more than just being good security industry. This is literally comes down to people being in a safe and happy and productive and inclusive society. Right. So I see this as no more and no less than compelling about making society better. You do some really interesting stuff in this space, don't you, around protecting elections and people. And can you talk to me a little bit about democracy and purpose? Yeah, no. Well, a functioning democracy is very important to us. And we do think has a role to play. So forty nine percent of the population is going to vote in twenty twenty four. And election security matters a lot. And so when you say that people think, oh, going to vote online and in some countries you can vote online in the United States, you can. But whether you can vote a cast to vote online or not, there's still a lot around election securities. How do you look up where your polling place is? What about the results? And you want to make sure that when you go look at the results of the election, that the page loads. Right. And that the information you're seeing is actually not misinformation. Could you imagine if it's not? And if you go and talk to the I.T. administrators, the network administrators behind the scenes that make all these election, all the infrastructure and elections run, they are not financed like a fine. They don't have big budgets. They're small teams who are very patriotic, who are trying to do a civil duty. And so one of the things that Klaffler did in twenty sixteen after the twenty sixteen U.S. elections is, hey, we need to make sure that we have a functioning election infrastructure. And part of that is making sure that it's secure. And so we provide our enterprise grade services at no cost to many election, both in the United States and around the world, just as the right thing to do. Yes. But then beyond elections, there's also other there's a whole other segment of what we describe as at risk public interest sites, something where it's something that's important, a cause, but they get attacked like they're a really big company, like a really big bank, but they have budgets like they're a small business. Yes. And so we have something called Project Galileo. It helps protect these at risk public interest sites. And we're coming up on 10 years of that of that program and eight years of Athenian, which is our election security. And this is back to the Internet's so important to what we do, so important to democracies. It's so important to these causes and voices being heard. And you have to make sure that it's accessible. And part of accessibility is security, making sure that it doesn't get knocked off line. And so we try and do our part. And it's something that I'm proud of and that so many people at Cloudflare are part of to be to help play a role, one role in helping in helping these organizations. So this is one of those areas, I think Accenture would be incredibly excited to work with you more closely moving forward. And if you think about the infrastructure of democracy and voting, it's certainly an area that Accenture has played an outside role in the part of building voting systems, building the technology that underpins national sense. These are the things that we do every day of the week. And then we have a public benefit part of Accenture that works generally in nations and regions that need a little bit more support. So one of the things that I think that we would love, certainly the people watching to be aware is if there are ideas of the way that we can combine to create better outcomes in different regions of the world around particular societies, then we'd be very open minded as to how to do that together. Because I think we both have that, we're doing this for societal benefit purpose behind what we're doing. Interestingly, this week, you get to see an unusual group of people all in one place at one time, and it's all very personal. The barriers are down a little bit because you're around a community of trust. I had a wonderful conversation with a very senior person in the US government responsible for some security aspects this week. And he was talking quite a lot about those people who've been a little bit under resourced in the past around state and municipal and territorial environments, and about the renewed focus from federal government and national security agencies into supporting them. So I think this is an area that over the next few years, we'll recognise that, yes, of course, the national security agencies and Department of Defence should have big security budgets. But it doesn't mean that 70% of the government agencies out there who are smaller and regional and municipal, it doesn't mean that they shouldn't have just as much capability. So I think this public-private engagement and partnership around those types of bodies, we're going to see a massive increase over the next few years. See, Scott, we really are just getting started. I think so, Michelle. There is. Yeah. This has been a wonderful conversation. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Can't look forward to our rugby match or hockey game, our one plus one equals three, and all these things we have left to do together. Yeah, you're welcome. Well, an absolute pleasure being in partnership with you, Accenture. Couldn't be more excited. Likewise from Cloudflare. Thank you so much. Thank you.