Communications of the ACM
Laser Security for the Internet
Credit: American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Jacob Scheuer at Tel Aviv University's School of Electrical Engineering has developed an information security system that acts as a type of key bearer. The system is designed to transmit the key bearer, a binary code, in the form of 1s and 0s via light and laser rather than numbers. "The trick is for those at either end of the fiber-optic link to send different laser signals they can distinguish between, but which look identical to an eavesdropper," Scheuer says.
The system, which runs on existing fiber-optic and computer technology, makes use of a specially designed laser that can reach more than 3,000 miles without losing key parts of the signal. Scheuer says only the sender and receiver would be able to unlock the shared key code, and notes that the strategy is simpler and more reliable than quantum cryptography.
Lab demonstrations showed the use of light pulses to transmit binary lock-and-key information could be absolutely secure.
From American Friends of Tel Aviv University
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2010 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA 
No entries found