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Growing Diamonds for Better Information Security

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the homegrown-security dept.

hip2b2 writes "NetworkWorld is running an article that describes how a University of Melbourne research group is developing technology to make fiber optics communications more secure. The technology is based on Quantum Cryptography principles and requires than absolutely only one photon gets sent at any given time. Today, fiber optic systems do not send one photon at a time. They only approximate it. This makes current systems unsuitable for their secure communications technology. Therefore, the group uses artificially grown diamonds to achieve this."

7 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Vaporware that is real by dbIII · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Grown diamonds are literally vaporware - but chemical vapor deposition is the interesting and relatively cheap way to do it. The old cheap way to make artificial diamonds was to blow things up (DuPont method), but the optical properties were no good.

    1. Re:Vaporware that is real by Khyber · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not all grown diamonds are vaporware in the literal sense. - Don't remember which university it was but they actully turned peanut butter into a diamond using a relatively easy process. Charbroil the hell out peanut butter until it's been reduced to carbon ash, grind the carbon ash up to fine dust, apply immense amounts of heat and high-level atmospheric pressures to simulate the pressure of large amounts of land - wait a while. You now have a diamond - it's optical quality was HORRIBLE (horrible is actually a poor term - imagine smoky quartz, then inject a fat bong hit of smoke nito it - that was how horrible the optical quality was) but its quite useful for industrial purposes (concrete cutting saw blades, for an immediate example) diamonds made from PB. I didn't believe it myself, but then again I've used heat and pressure in geology class to make cobalt crystals from materials that contain cobalt, so in all honesty I shouldn't be too surprised.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  2. Re:People have been growing diamonds for years. by sgant · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Not that diamonds really have much value as gems anyway, have you ever tried to sell a second hand diamond ring?

    This may be true if you're just trying to sell something that you bought yourself, but if you were to sell the loose stone....if it's a quality stone that is...then of course it has value.

    But you must remember, if you bought a ring at a discount or even a chain jewelery store, you're probably got ripped off. They sold you a diamond that was claimed to be much higher quality than it really is. Or had one of those kitchy names like a "Hearts on Fire Diamond".

    --

    "Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
  3. Re:They wont like this... by BitchKapoor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    DeBeers will give you all sorts of fud saying that they will eventually have a process for telling the difference between the two, but they won't. Ever.

    Actually, they do: excavated diamonds have more lattice defects and impurities than manufactured diamonds.

  4. Re:They wont like this... by flobberchops · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Then "manufacture" these impurities in then. Make this cartel suffer as they have caused those they pillage to suffer. Just like the oil industry in some countries.

  5. Re:They wont like this... by bmo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Actually, they do: excavated diamonds have more lattice defects and impurities than manufactured diamonds."

    And that's what scares the diamond dealers the most. The most expensive diamonds are the ones that are so-called perfect. High quality manufactured diamonds could easily bring down the inflated value of the very top end diamonds.

    --
    BMO

  6. Re:Using Diamonds Over FIber for Key Exchange? Huh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Quantum cryptography is invulnerable to observation, but it is still vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack in which the attacker pretends to be the destination. From wikipedia:

    Quantum cryptography is still vulnerable to a type of MITM where the interceptor (Eve) establishes herself as "Alice" to Bob, and as "Bob" to Alice. Then, Eve simply has to perform QC negotiations on both sides simultaneously, obtaining two different keys. Alice-side key is used to decrypt the incoming message, which is reencrypted using the Bob-side key.

    This attack fails if both sides can verify each other's identity.

    Identity verification is also vulnerable, and difficult, though not impossible.