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QKD Chip Shrinks to a Usable 3mm Size

posted by chromas on Monday November 04 2019, @03:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the coming-to-a-credit-card-near-you dept.

RandomFactor writes:

Up until now, QKD (Quantum Key Distribution) required devices the size of a refrigerator or larger. Now researchers have developed a QKD chip a mere 3 millimeters in size.

So why is QKD so important? Right now, when we encrypt data we generally use passwords or biometric data, which can be hacked or leaked.

Quantum technology, however, allows us to encrypt the key within the message. Only the person with the exact same key as the one inside the message can open it.

"It is like sending a secured letter," says physicist Kwek Leong Chuan, from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. "Imagine that the person who wrote the letter locked the message in an envelope with its key also inside it. The recipient needs the same key to open it."

The applications for QKD such as something that can be worn on your wrist or in a smartphone are significant in commerce, security, and next generation communications. Additionally, the new solution

developed by the scientists at NTU should be relatively easy and cheap to produce, as it uses standard industry materials like silicon, that are already widely used in computer manufacturing.

Certainly easier than carrying around a refrigerator.

Journal Reference
Zhang, G., Haw, J.Y., Cai, H. et al. An integrated silicon photonic chip platform for continuous-variable quantum key distribution.[$] Nat. Photonics (2019) doi:10.1038/s41566-019-0504-5

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Redundant) by FatPhil on Monday November 04 2019, @10:49PM (9 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Monday November 04 2019, @10:49PM (#915999) Homepage
    Its quantum (no copying) nature means that any evesdropping significantly greater than the quantum channel's noise floor will be noticed, and the key exchange invalidated. You do expect some noise in a quantum channel, so there is a small amount of evesdropping that is possible undetected (noise is effectively the outside world evesdropping on the channel accidentally). This is why the raw data that is successfully exchanged in order to agree a key is hashed to form the real key, so that even the evesdropped bits below the noise floor are completely useless.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
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  • (Score: 2) by exaeta on Tuesday November 05 2019, @06:26PM (8 children)

    by exaeta (6957) on Tuesday November 05 2019, @06:26PM (#916422) Homepage Journal
    If only an attacker(Eve) could man in the middle! Imagine if Bob and Alice communicated over a QKD system! Nobody could eavesdrop! Problem is that Bob is really talking to Eve who is also talking to Alice. There's no eavesdropping permitted in the channels between Eve and Alice nor Eve and Bob though, phew! Saved from eavesdropping by QKD! (Doesn't thwart man in the middle attacks, though, as noted.)
    --
    The Government is a Bird

    • (Score: 1, Redundant) by FatPhil on Tuesday November 05 2019, @11:02PM (7 children)

      by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Tuesday November 05 2019, @11:02PM (#916588) Homepage
      What you've written makes it sound like you don't know how quantum key exchange is done. Evesdropping introduces noise. You compare notes (in *public*, nothing is leaked) before you agree on the key, and that comparison reveals how much noise there was, and therefore if there was an evesdropper or other man in the middle who perturbed the state of the bits (which is unavoidable, because physics). Are you imagining that authentification (a horrible word, but it's the term of art) does not exist?
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

      • (Score: 1, Redundant) by exaeta on Wednesday November 06 2019, @06:33AM (6 children)

        by exaeta (6957) on Wednesday November 06 2019, @06:33AM (#916734) Homepage Journal

        Uh... when you initiate the exchage. How do you know you weren't talking to Evil Eve to begin with?

        Man in the middle doesn't perturb anything. Man in the middle is a case of identity falsification... imagine for a moment, the other computer was disconnected from the QKD network and the QKD connection was instead plugged into the attacker's computer. The attacker has the same type of QKD device as the intended target... how can you detect this compromise? The hardware is identical and made by the same manufacturer as the intended QKD partner. How do you detect this? Does QKD give you verification of the other party's location?

        Bob: I'm Bob, My qkd key is 2ir702o27294.
        Eve: I'm Alice, I also verified that key of 2ir702o27294. No eavesdropping detected.
        Bob: Okay Alice, I checked your key 2ir702o27294 and I see we establushed an eavesdropping proof quantum connection!
        Bob: Log into my account bob@warez.net with password foobar0y2k
        Eve: Okay, Bob, here's you bank account information. 3882 3882 1882 8888
        Meanwhile:

        Eve: I'm Bob, My qkd key is 3988d002028noz
        Alice: I'm Alice, I also verified that key of 3988d002028noz. No eavesdropping detected.
        Eve: Okay Alice, I checked your key 3988d002028noz and I see we establushed an eavesdropping proof quantum connection!
        Eve: Log into my account bob@warez.net with password foobar0y2k
        Alice: Okay, Bob, here's you bank account information. 3882 3882 1882 8888

        Result: Eve now has Bob's bank account information, despite the quantum tunnel.

        --
        The Government is a Bird

        • (Score: 2, Interesting) by FatPhil on Wednesday November 06 2019, @08:08AM

          by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Wednesday November 06 2019, @08:08AM (#916746) Homepage
          > How do you know you weren't talking to Evil Eve to begin with?

          Clue - that's answered in my prior post.
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

        • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday November 08 2019, @09:33AM (4 children)

          by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 08 2019, @09:33AM (#917819) Journal

          Just because you disagree with him doesn't mean that he is trolling. I'm not saying that he is right and you are wrong, but you could at least debate the point without trying to suppress his views. I would suggest that the 'Disagree' moderation is more appropriate in this instance.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 08 2019, @02:56PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 08 2019, @02:56PM (#917873)
            If you're talking about the post above, then yes, it's trolling. Responding with "I already answered that", when this is not really true, I think, would count as trolling. But hey, I consider information-less posts trying to argue a point trolling. Maybe if there was a "contains no information" or "uninformative" mod I would use it. Redundant kind of implies they are repeating a point that has already been made. That isn't the case here, it's just a useless post with no information. One can't disagree with a post that doesn't state an opinion or provide any reasoning or evidence to support it.

            • (Score: 1, Troll) by janrinok on Friday November 08 2019, @05:54PM (1 child)

              by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 08 2019, @05:54PM (#917955) Journal

              If you re-read the post you believe he is trolling in, you will see that he has answered that question.

              You compare notes (in *public*, nothing is leaked) before you agree on the key, and that comparison reveals how much noise there was, and therefore if there was an evesdropper or other man in the middle who perturbed the state of the bits (which is unavoidable, because physics).

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:50PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:50PM (#918294)
                Might as well have exchanged public keys at that point. There's no point to QKD.

          • (Score: 2) by exaeta on Monday November 11 2019, @11:44PM

            by exaeta (6957) on Monday November 11 2019, @11:44PM (#919143) Homepage Journal
            Should I abuse the -1 redundant mod instead when he is clearly trolling? lol!
            --
            The Government is a Bird