quantum cryptography
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Quantum cryptography: now ready for space travel
It's been awhile since we've heard of any major advancements in the world of quantum cryptography, but at long last the silence is being broken by a squad of jubilant Austrian physicists. As the story goes, a team from Austria's Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) managed to send "entangled photons" 90 miles between the Spanish islands of Las Palmas and the Balearics. Calling the ephemeral test successful, the crew has boldly asserted that it's now feasible to send "this kind of unbreakable encrypted communication through space using satellites." Funny -- last we remember, quantum cryptography still had a few kinks to work through here beneath the stratosphere.
Researchers demo "unbreakable encryption" based on quantum cryptography
Call us devilish, but we just can't help but love these types of stories. Here we have yet another overly confident group of researchers grossly underestimating the collective power of the hacking underground, as gurus from all across Europe have joined together to announce "the first commercial communication network using unbreakable encryption based on quantum cryptography." Interestingly enough, quantum cryptography has already been cracked in a kinda-sorta way, but that's not stopping these folks from pushing this claim hard to government agencies, financial institutions and companies with distributed subsidiaries. We've no doubt this stuff is pretty secure, but the last time we heard someone utter a claim similar to this, we saw him uncomfortably chowing down on those very words merely months later.[Via Physorg]
Quantum cryptography to keep Swiss votes private
In what's being hailed as "one of the first public uses of quantum cryptography," Genevian voters who take part in the upcoming national elections can rest assured that their votes will remain a secret. Reportedly, the "city-state will use quantum technology to encrypt election results as they are sent to the capital on October 21st." A computer, provided by id Quantique, will be set up in Geneva to "fire photons down a fiber-optic link to a receiver 62-miles away," which should be sufficient to keep any potential eavesdroppers at bay. 'Course, where there's a will, there's typically a way.
Quantum cryptography kinda sorta hacked
It's always only a matter of time. A little less than a year after the first quantum cryptographic network was demoed, a group of researchers at MIT have announced a working implementation of a hack that's been around in theory since 1998 but never implemented. Skirting around ol' Wernie Heisenberg and that Principle of his, the team exploited quantum entanglement to read the encryption keys encoded in photon polarizations from their momentums, avoiding detection by either end -- in other words, doing what was once thought impossible by cryptographers. The system isn't perfect, however -- in this early incarnation it can only nab 40% of transmitted data before giving itself away, and more importantly, it requires the invention of a "quantum non-demolition box" before the attacker can be anywhere but the same room as the receiver, since right now both attacker and receiver need to be using the same photon detector. Sounds like that might put a damper on that whole "undetectable" thing. Still, the researchers sound upbeat -- they're saying the work proves that no secret is truly safe. We're just wondering if they're pushing MIT to rename their department SETEC ASTRONOMY.
First quantum cryptographic data network demoed
With so much sensitive data traveling among governmental agencies, financial institutions, and organized crime rackets, the need for ultra-secure communication has never been higher, and now it seems like the holy grail of unbreakable encryption is almost upon us. Researchers from Northwestern University and Massachusetts-based BBN Technologies recently joined forces to demonstrate what's being hailed as the world's first fully-functional quantum cryptographic data network, as the system leverages the quantum entanglement properties of photons for both data transfer as well as key distribution. The magic of quantum cryptography lies in the fact that not only can two parties exchange the so-called keys without the risk of an eavesdropper ever being able to fully ascertain their values, but the simple act of eavesdropping on an encrypted data transfer can easily be detected on both ends of the line. This current breakthrough combined Northwestern's data encryption method (known as AlphaEta) with BBN's key encryption scheme to enable a completely secure fiber optic link between BBN's headquarters and Harvard University, a distance of nine kilometers. As you might imagine, the entire project was funded by a $5.4 million grant from DARPA, an agency which has a vested interest in transmitting data that not even a theoretical quantum computer could crack. It will be a while before this technology filters down to the consumer, but when it does, you can bet that BitTorrenting pirates will be beside themselves with joy.[Via Slashdot]
