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Communications of the ACM

China Region Special Section: Hot Topics

Quantum Communication at 7,600km and Beyond


quantum communication, illustration

Credit: Yurchanka Siarhei

The exponential growth of the Internet and e-commerce shows the importance of establishing a secure network with global protection of data. Cryptography, the use of codes and ciphers to protect secrets, began thousands of years ago. While conventional cryptography methods predominantly rely upon mathematical complexity, their encryption can usually be defeated by advanced hacking.

The idea of quantum cryptography, proposed by Bennett and Brassard in 19841 and by Ekert in 1991,2 offered a radical, secure solution to the key exchange problem based on information theory, ensured by the laws of quantum physics. Quantum key distribution (QKD) allows two distant parties to produce a random string of secret bits, called a secret key.


 

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