Data Obfuscation for Secure Use of Classical Values in Quantum Computation
This addresses security for quantum computing users by providing a complementary protection method, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing quantum operations.
The paper tackles the problem of protecting classical data during quantum computation in untrusted environments by proposing the first explicit data obfuscation technique, which encodes data into structured quantum representations to avoid direct exposure while maintaining usability, with feasibility demonstrated through simulation.
Quantum computing often requires classical data to be supplied to execution environments that may not be fully trusted or isolated. While encryption protects data at rest and in transit, it provides limited protection once computation begins, when classical values are encoded into quantum registers. This paper explores data obfuscation for protecting classical values during quantum computation. To the best of our knowledge, we present the first explicit data obfuscation technique designed to protect classical values during quantum execution. We propose an obfuscation technique that encodes sensitive data into structured quantum representations across multiple registers, avoiding direct exposure while preserving computational usability. Reversible quantum operations and amplitude amplification allow selective recovery of valid encodings without revealing the underlying data. We evaluate the feasibility of the proposed method through simulation and analyze its resource requirements and practical limitations. Our results highlight data obfuscation as a complementary security primitive for quantum computing.