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A Working, Quantum-Encrypted Intranet
192939495969798999 writes "This article points out how BBN, developers of ARPANET, have actually created a quantum-encrypted intranet that serves pages to a small group of research scientists. I firmly believe this is as significant as the very first internet transmission some years back. If the technology is working and 100% secure, how long until it makes its way at least into government websites? This might be the end of the hacked by Chinese index pages!"
Reader Kent adds "A New York based company, MagiQ
Technologies, has begun selling units for
commercial use while a group in Europe recently made the first quantum encrypted
bank transaction in Vienna, Austria - April 2004. But the Boston network -
though limited to three locations - is believed to be the first Internet-integrated
system
that runs
continuously
between multiple distant locations."
I just wanted to pose the question, how can you prove that it has not been tampered with? You can't measure anything without changing the state, right? So you shouldn't really be able to prove that its secure either. Anyone else think that this is BS?
This is completely false. This is not a sig.
Don't miss this bit on how the EU is planning to use Quantum Crypto to subert and avoid the U.S.'s rampant digital espionage.
tcd004
Is this the same 'quantum' used to talk about the experimental computers that create data before it's written, and other strange things?
If so, wouldn't there be a risk of data corruption? 'Oops, the keys are invalid because I looked at them'?
On a related note, isn't the whole quantum thing a bit dangerous because of the possibility of those things happening? Would I need to worry about my alarm clock next to my desktop machine turning into a raccoon?
I guess my real question is, is there a simple guide to quantum stuff online that explains all this stuff so that a non-science geek can understand long enough to stockpile the tinfoil?
When some PR guy comes along and claims it's 100% secure, we snicker and the PR guy wins the project and gets a Porsche.
OTOH my boss invites me to such vendor meetings b/c he knows that the vendor's true character will show about 3 minutes after i get that big smirk on my face and start asking the vendor questions that s/he can't answer.
Work for a boss that respects your opinion - it's rather nice.
Your bit about "same tech banks use" is very good too. That'd make me nod my head and my boss would settle down a bit.
IIRC, In the movie "Contact" it was suggested that the ET's first heard from us when we began to beam our television signals into space for satellite relay or ground really...
Now one might wonder if the data we are placing into a "quantum medium" will somehow be detected by entities who know how to detect such events.
Hmmm...I wonder
mounting the device serving the web content as read only would also put an end to "hacked by chinese" index pages!!
I'm not so sure; it really depends on how they're routing this. If it is a single dedicated line between each machine, sure. However, if they're routing on an unsecured connection to a router, then across a quantum encryption tunnel, and then decrypted and routed across another unsecured connection, then you can listen in to the connections at any point outside the quantum tunnel, and could very well crack the routers.
Trying to route data that was encrypted "as it leaves the computer"... I'm not sure if that can even be done. I suppose, if you had a one-time pad with your router, and it had a one-time pad with the next hop... etc - and you knew how many hops there were going to be - you could do it. Although you'd have to send many, many times more photons, since half will be lost at each step of the way (if I'm recalling correctly), and nothing would make the routers unhackable.
One of the big problems with a quantum encrypted network is that it's for a very specialized purpose. The bandwidth and latency on such a network will always be very lousy, not only due to the increased transmission complexity, but simply from the fact that you transmit so many photons for a single byte.
I was watching this thing on TV about some guy named Hitler. Someone should stop him!
Would the US government really allow a technology that it couldn't eavesdrop?
Breaking quantum encryption would most likely net you a Nobel Prize in Physics, since it implies breaking QM.
This is indeed a truly new level of encryption. We probably can't say 100%, but breaking quantum encryption is definately a different order of difficulty than breaking conventional encryption.
Mine.
Actually, my oldest is 9, so no teenagers yet. The kids' computer is connected to the home network, but blocked COLD at the router from ever touching the internet. No, they can't use mine because they don't know the 18-character password and I can type it in 1-2 seconds, so they won't be shoulder-surfing it either.
Some time in the future, when I allow internet access from that machine, there will be a sniffing process on a separate machine that has tamper indications. The sniffed data will be grepped for our street name, phone number, name of their school, words indicative of pr0n being sent/received, etc. and any match will trigger human review.
Don't flame me and say I'm invading their privacy. This is a duty that I owe to my daughters. Furthermore, I can decide that as their parent and until they are 18, their privacy goes out the window when safety is in question. If you heard a window break in your kid's room, a scream, and an unfamiliar voice, would you knock on the door first and say, "are you dressed? Can I come in?" or would you grab the shotgun and kick the door open immediately?
-paul
Pistol caliber is like religion: everyone has their favourite, and theirs is the only right choice.
This might be the end of the hacked by Chinese index pages!" Reader Kent adds
If you use https, then China couldn't hack your pages today. Now if you're implying that even https could be hacked, then quantum encryption doesn't provide you any benifit.
The reason is that you can only quantumly encrypt a single point-to-point channel (haven't read the article, so you could make a lier out of me). And unless you have a direct connection to the end-point in question, you're going to have to go through a gateway. That gateway necessarily needs to see the contents of your message [header]. And more importantly I believe all chinese internet connections run through state-owned gateways.
Additionally, even fiber-optics have limited range, and I suspenct that the quantum-encrypted messages are passing through such a medium. Thus there must be repeaters which will establish separate quantum connection segments. Each repeater is a possible exploit point. (Again, the article could prove me wrong).
-Michael
You don't need to hack the transmission to hack the computer at the other end. Which is the goal sniffing the network is just one of many ways to hack the device. And the least used now that most people use switches let alone encripted tunnels.
Well, that would depend on the message itself. There are definitely situations where having the message not arrive at all is infinitely better than having it overheard.