Quantum Encryption System Deemed Unbreakable, Won't Send You Hurling Through Time
Posted 10/10/08 at 05:25:22 PM | by Alex Castle

ImageSource: US Air Force
In what may be the biggest thing to happen to cryptography in a very long time, the world’s first computer network built with working quantum encryption technology has been demonstrated in Vienna. The network connects six locations with a total 200 km of fiber optic cable and the encryption system is said to be completely unbreakable, according to the BBC.
The network transmits a stream of millions of individual photons a second through the cable, and can detect if anyone has attempted to listen in on the stream.
Gilles Brassard, of Montreal University explained to the BBC how the system can be unbreakable: “All quantum security schemes are based on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, on the fact that you cannot measure quantum information without disturbing it. Because of that, one can have a communications channel between two users on which it’s impossible to eavesdrop without creating a disturbance. An eavesdropper would create a mark on it.”
If an intrusion is detected, the data transfer is immediately rerouted through different nodes.
Pretty cool, huh? Let us know what you think of this new technology after the break.
Bogus
Submitted by tfox on Wed, 2008-10-15 09:16
Tracy Fox
"High tech is cool, but low tech rules."
In quantum physics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that locating a particle in a small region of space makes the momentum of the particle uncertain; and conversely, that measuring the momentum of a particle precisely makes the position uncertain.
Put simply this means that while they could measure the precise location of quantum particles at the start of a transmission, they can not predict the precise location of those particles at the end of the transmission or at any point in between.
In order to accurately predict the future location of any moving object you need to know: 1. The objects original location, 2. The objects trajectory, 3. The objects velocity and 4. All obstacles. The last one may have you scratching your head, but think about it. Quantum particles are zipping and bouncing along a fiber optic line, (basically a tube). Remember these people are not just saying that they can get information from point A to point B. They are essentialy claiming to know what the precise location of every particle is through out the transmission. And they would have to know that in order to know weather or not someone had tapped the lines. But of course that is impossible by todays standards. The only way to know the precise location of any particle is to measure that particle. And that measurement will change the particles speed and trajectory.
Strange relations
Submitted by Shalbatana on Tue, 2008-10-14 08:13
The HUP is one primary reason that is quoted as making Transporters impossible. The good news is that someone is more likely to want to overcome it in order to steal millions. When they do... no more commuting!
_______________________________
"There's no time like the future."
Breakups?
Submitted by guest001 on Sun, 2008-10-12 19:49
If this were true, wouldn't there be pause in the data transfer every time an intrusion was detected?
Huh,
Submitted by Cache on Fri, 2008-10-10 17:45
Knowing our government, they will have this foolproof way of knowing if someone could be eavesdropping on their communications from the outside, while they are chock-full of keyloggers on the inside. This program will be easily beaten--not by physics, but by stupid people who say "Yes, I want to see nude pics of Anna Kournikova!" and download something onto their end of the 'closed system'.
How is that encryption?
Submitted by Phyzicistblue on Fri, 2008-10-10 17:05
How is that encryption? Sounds just like checking to see if someone opened your mail when you get it from your mailbox.









