from the quantum-digits-to-the-rescue dept.
Researchers have increased the speed of quantum key distribution from hundreds of kilobits to megabits per second:
Researchers have packed extra information onto single photons to speed up quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. QKD uses a characteristic of quantum mechanics to protect keys used to encrypt data using classical crypto schemes: if Eve tries to snoop on the key Alice is sending Bob, the quantum state/s a photon carries are destroyed. Alice and Bob know there's an eavesdropper, and the key Eve eavesdropped is useless.
However, compared to conventional telecommunications systems, QKD is slow: most systems based on photon-by-photon transmission of crypto keys run at speeds of hundreds of kilobits per second.
Research from Duke University's Nurul Taimur Islam, with collaborators from Ohio State University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the National University of Singapore, achieved megabit key distribution rates using off-the-shelf components, meaning existing photonic QKD systems could be adapted to use it their work. In a paper based on research funded by the United States Navy and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), published in Science Advances [open, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1701491] [DX] and available as pre-press at arXiv, the researchers explained that to get faster key distribution rates, they worked to overcome the limits on photon detectors' speed.
Also at Engadget.
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If implemented on a wide scale, quantum key distribution technology could ensure truly secure commerce, banking, communications and data transfer.
A small device developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory uses the truly random spin of light particles as defined by laws of quantum mechanics to generate a random number for use in a cryptographic key that can be used to securely transmit information between two parties. Quantum key distribution represents a foolproof cryptography method that may now become available to the general public, thanks to a licensing agreement between Los Alamos and Whitewood Encryption Systems, LLC ( http://www.whitewoodencryption.com/ ). Los Alamos scientists developed their particular method for quantum cryptography after two decades of rigorous testing inside of the nation's premier national security science laboratory.
http://www.lanl.gov/discover/news-release-archive/2014/September/09-02-secure-computing.php
Quantum key distribution is regularly touted as the encryption of the future. While the keys are exchanged on an insecure channel, the laws of physics provide a guarantee that two parties can exchange a secret key without knowing whether they're being overheard. This unencrypted-but-secure form of key exchange circumvents one of the potential shortcomings of some forms of public key systems.
However, quantum key distribution (QKD) has one big downside: the two parties need to have a direct link to each other. So, for instance, banks in and around Geneva use dedicated fiber links to perform QKD, but they can only do this because the link distance is less than 100 km. These fixed and short links are an expensive solution. A more flexible solution is required if QKD is going to be used for more general encryption purposes.
A group of Italian researchers have demonstrated the possibility of QKD via a satellite, which in principle (but not in practice) means that any two parties with a view of a satellite can exchange keys.
Hackers, take notice: Ultrasecure quantum video chats are now possible across the globe.
In a demonstration of the world's first intercontinental quantum link, scientists held a long-distance videoconference on September 29 between Austria and China. To secure the communication, a Chinese satellite distributed a quantum key, a secret string of numbers used to encrypt the video transmission so that no one could eavesdrop on the conversation. In the call, chemist Chunli Bai, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, spoke with quantum physicist Anton Zeilinger, president of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
"It's a huge achievement," says quantum physicist Thomas Jennewein of the University of Waterloo in Canada, who was not involved with the project. "It's a major step to show that this approach could be viable."
I can't wait to use this!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday November 29 2017, @06:51AM (5 children)
Let me tell you about quantum stuff. A flight full of Freescale Semiconductor people who were researching quantum stuff was disappeared outside of a Chinese flight.
Whether or not their disappearance has anything or not to do with Chinese evilness, we may never know. But after that disappearance took place, all of a sudden the Chinese are engaging in all this quantum shit.
Don't beLIEve me, take into account the facts with your own two eyes!
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday November 29 2017, @07:01AM (4 children)
MH 370. The details are too stinky to overlook.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 29 2017, @08:01AM (3 children)
Letting aside MH 370 was a Malaysian flight, not a Chinese one, what exactly "disappeared outside of a... flight" does mean?
They were somehow extracted while in flight or what? They were flying outside MH370 and were disappeared while doing so?
Inquiring minds want to know.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday November 29 2017, @08:10AM (2 children)
They used the same method the Jews used to hijack the Global Hawks...er...the 747's...and fly them into the twin towers (a Global Hawk was flown into the Pentagon.)
Remote control redirecting. Those 14 or so quantum experts from Freescale were far too valuable to fly back into American hands. They were disappeared off radar and redirected into the mainland...or somewhere else.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday November 29 2017, @08:35AM
Except that the 20 freescale semi people disappeared were 12 Malaysians and 8 Chinese [theregister.co.uk], heading towards Beijing.
It would have made a lot more sense for the Chinese to let the flight land and disappear them inside the airport or the cars carrying them from there.
It you really like this line of consptheory, is more plausible that the CIA learnt about the impeding defection and blew up the plane rather than let them get out of the American hands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 29 2017, @07:04PM
Clearly your drinking is destroying what little ability you have to reason, eth.
The real story here is:
The libruls are allowing a raghead terr'ist to work on this stuff. I hope our beloved president throws this jihadist and every other piece of shit like him that hates 'murikkka *under* the jail forever!
Those mohammed's dick sucking scum need to be disemboweled alive and dumped into our amber waves of grain so their blood can be fertilizer for our great nation as they bleed out.
But, no! Those soft-headed libruls like Chuck, Nancy and John McCain want to give the terr'ists quantum encryption because they hate our way of life and want Sharia law throughout the world.
Thankfully, our most popular president ever, with the help of *real* 'murikkans like Richard Spencer, the wonderful Steve Bannon, Dillon Hopper and other right-thinking real (read: white) humans, will kill and dismember as many muzzie terr'ists and other darkies until they're no longer a threat to our way of life.