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posted by Fnord666 on Monday September 14 2020, @07:59AM   Printer-friendly
from the CaN-yOu-HeAr-Me-NoW? dept.

Revolutionary quantum breakthrough paves way for safer online communication:

The world is one step closer to having a totally secure internet and an answer to the growing threat of cyber-attacks, thanks to a team of international scientists who have created a multi-user quantum communication network which could transform how we communicate online.

The invention led by the University of Bristol, revealed today in the journal Science Advances, has the potential to serve millions of users, is understood to be the largest-ever quantum network of its kind, and could be used to secure people's online communication, particularly in these internet-led times accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

By deploying a new technique, harnessing the simple laws of physics, it can make messages completely safe from interception while also overcoming major challenges which have previously limited advances in this little used but much-hyped technology.

Lead author Dr Siddarth Joshi, who headed the project at the university's Quantum Engineering Technology (QET) Labs, said: "This represents a massive breakthrough and makes the quantum internet a much more realistic proposition. Until now, building a quantum network has entailed huge cost, time, and resource, as well as often compromising on its security which defeats the whole purpose."

"Our solution is scalable, relatively cheap and, most important of all, impregnable. That means it's an exciting game changer and paves the way for much more rapid development and widespread rollout of this technology."

Journal Reference:
Siddarth Koduru Joshi, Djeylan Aktas, Sören Wengerowsky, et al. A trusted node–free eight-user metropolitan quantum communication network [open], Science Advances (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba0959)


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  • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Monday September 14 2020, @11:31AM (1 child)

    by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 14 2020, @11:31AM (#1050688)

    Does it run on Covfefe?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @06:20PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @06:20PM (#1050904)

      Does it run on Covfefe?

      Yes. It accepts quarters and tokens.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @12:04PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @12:04PM (#1050695)

    Now politicians will require quantum good guys key to quantum snoop on bad guys.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Monday September 14 2020, @02:05PM

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Monday September 14 2020, @02:05PM (#1050758) Journal

      Yep, if it really works, the ISPs will follow orders and just drop the packets they can't inspect.

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by SemperOSS on Monday September 14 2020, @05:41PM

    by SemperOSS (5072) on Monday September 14 2020, @05:41PM (#1050865)

    I hope this message finds you well.

    My good friend, the late Dr. Alexander Alva Einstein, was a Nigerian prince and a devoted churchgoer. My friend has recently deceased without any living descendants, leaving an estate of $40,000,000 (US Dollars forty million) to be distributed among deserving people. Your E-mail address, very.very.needy@example.com, has been selected to receive a donation of $500,000 (US Dollars five hundred thousand) from his estate.

    As the executor of Dr. Alexander Alva Einstein's estate, I would be delighted to send the money to you, but to ensure against fraud, I would like you to first send me your mother's maiden name, your full name, your date of birth, your current address (and also any previous addresses within the last five years), your bank account details (i.e. name of the bank, the name of the branch and its address as well as the account number), your landline telephone and mobile-/cellphone numbers and lastly attach a scanned copy of your latest utility bill (if you do not have a scanner, you can take a photograph of it with your mobile phone and attach that instead of the scanned copy).

    Please send this information to John Doe (very.fraudulent.nigerian.person@gmаіl.соm) and to ensure that the communication cannot be used by any outsider, please encrypt it with the latest quantum encryption technique from Quantum Engineering Technology (QET) Labs of University of Bristol.

    May God's mercy and benevolence shine upon you and your family in these troubling times where your fellow humans cannot be trusted and where Covid-19 causes so much suffering.


    Your's sincerely and forever

    John Doe


    --
    I don't need a signature to draw attention to myself.
    Maybe I should add a sarcasm warning now and again?
  • (Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Tuesday September 15 2020, @12:11AM

    by Rupert Pupnick (7277) on Tuesday September 15 2020, @12:11AM (#1051050) Journal

    If the security being offered by this latest “quantum breakthrough” is security from someone tapping into a piece of fiber to recover an optical signal, then it’s a “solution” in search of a problem. I’ve never heard of anyone trying to steal data this way, probably because there are so many ways that are far easier to do it.

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