Communications of the ACM
Laws of Physics Say Quantum Cryptography Is Unhackable. It’s Not
The beam splitter in a quantum cryptography unit created for the European Unions Integrated Project Qubit Applications.
Credit: Anders Sandberg/Flickr
Quantum cryptography can theoretically encrypt a message in a way that would make it impossible for unintended viewers to access, but in reality machine errors and other factors mean that even quantum cryptography systems can fail.
"If you build it correctly, no hacker can hack the system," says Zurich's Institute of Theoretical Physics physicist Renato Renner. "The question is what it means to build it correctly."
In quantum cryptography, the key is encrypted into a series of photons that is transmitted between two parties sharing information. According to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, an interloper cannot look at these photons without changing or destroying them. However, weaknesses exist, such as the fact that hackers can blind a detector with a strong pulse so that the photons cannot be seen.
In addition, it is possible that the laser generating the photons will make a photon with confidential information and then a second photon with that same information, opening the possibility that hackers could access the second photon without being detected.
Renner is developing cryptographic principles that would allow a high measure of security regardless of technological limitations, such as entangling two photons or purposely sending multiple photons to see whether one is stolen.
From Wired News
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2013 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found