Quantum Computing Methods for Malware Detection

Springer arXiv

In this paper, we explore the potential of quantum computing in enhancing malware detection through the application of Quantum Machine Learning (QML). Our main objective is to investigate the performance of the Quantum Support Vector Machine (QSVM) algorithm compared to SVM. A publicly available dataset containing raw binaries of Portable Executable (PE) files was used for the classification. The QSVM algorithm, incorporating quantum kernels through different feature maps, was implemented and evaluated on a local simulator within the Qiskit SDK and IBM quantum computers. Experimental results from simulators and quantum hardware provide insights into the behavior and performance of quantum computers, especially in handling large-scale computations for malware detection tasks. The work summarizes the practical experience with using quantum hardware via the Qiskit interfaces. We describe in detail the critical issues encountered, as well as the fixes that had to be developed and applied to the base code of the Qiskit Machine Learning library. These issues include missing transpilation of the circuits submitted to IBM Quantum systems and exceeding the maximum job size limit due to the submission of all the circuits in one job.

Eliška Krátká

Quantum Computing and Security Researcher

at FIT CTU in Prague

Publications

Talks and Presentations

PraSec 11 Conference

Sep 18 2025

Web

OWASP Czech

Dec 4 2025

Event

Miton AI Times

Oct 30 2025

Event

Competitions

NTU-IBM Qiskit Hackathon Taiwan - 2nd place

Aug 2025

Event Details

International Quantum Hackathon - 1st place

Jun 2024

Details

IT SPY - Finalist

Nov 2024

Details

Qiskit Quantum Computing Hackathon Taiwan - 2nd place

Aug 2023

Event Details

Experience

PhD Researcher @ FIT CTU

2024 Sep - Present

Research in quantum computing, security and ML malware detection.

iOS Developer @ Gen (Avast)

2019 Apr - 2025 Apr

Development of security-focused iOS applications, mainly mobile VPN clients for Apple devices.

Mentor @ Czechitas

2017 Sep - 2023 Sep

Mentoring women and girls in programming and technology.

Education

MSc @ FIT CTU

2022 - 2024

Cybersecurity

BSc @ FIT CTU

2018 - 2022

Cybersecurity and Informatics