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Quantum Cryptography In Action
Whitney Wyatt writes: "Discover magazine outlines the first successful laser photon communication utilizing Quantum Cryptography. Called 'Perfect Encryption,' quantum encryption sends the key with the message, however it is impossible for an eavesdropper to intercept the message without changing it. One can only wonder what the FBI will do."
One can only wonder what the FBI will do.
Why, outlaw quantum mechanics, of course!
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
They'll simply declare that, like plutonium and surface-to-air-missiles, it's something that they can't abide the public owning, and will outlaw it. What else could they do?
I'm guessing you didn't read the article. They've been able to do this over a distance of 6 miles in open air. Not bad, considering this is an infancy stage.
Yeah, it means the message can only be read once. But in this case the message is the key for a one time pad encryption.
Basically this makes one time pad encryption a whole lot more secure than it was before. One time pads, I think, are the best form of encryption--but the problem has been the security of the key.
this whole photon quantum encryption deal addresses that issue in a really neat way.
With a one-time pad. Like he just said.
Say you have 1kb you need to encrypt.
You generate a 1kb key, and do a simple XOR.
Then you take the key, and the resulting 'encrypted' file, and send them on their merry way. Only when the two are placed together can the original data be recovered.
So as long as nobody obtains the original key, the data is uncrackable. You can't brute force it, because the keyspace is the size of the data itself. Brute forcing it would simply mean generating every single combination of 1k data fields and guessing which one was the original.
Make sense?
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