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Growing Diamonds for Better Information Security
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."
Quantum Cryptography Field will be soon swarmed with females. INGENIUS! University of Melbourne research group just came up with an answer for the problem on this total sausage party we have going on with CS department.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
Er, "artificial" diamonds are just as real as "real" diamonds. It's a face-centered cubic carbon crystal lattice whether transported up from the mantle by geological forces or manufactured.
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.
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BMO
First-generation products will be for very secure transmission of secure datasets, like a bank's daily offsite backup, but could serve the commodity networking market in about 20 years, Huntington said. It's a low transfer rate but idea is not to send data [this way] but the encryption key so you don't need the same transfer rate. One of the consortium's goals is to enhance that as much as possible. If you can securely transfer the key you can transfer the rest of that data over a standard telco line, he said.
So let me get this straight. The article implies: 1) I can build a secure fiber line between two points and to transfer a key, one photon at a time; and 2) once the key is transferred, I can then use standard telco lines. If I am going to the trouble to build a custom fiber optic network between two points that works with diamond lasers, why would I use telco lines? Conversely, if I don't build my own point to point fiber for key transmission then I run the risk of man-in-the-middle stealing my keys since the middle will have repeaters which can regenerate these 'secure photons'.
I say to you, this makes no sense. Why not just put 52 keys on a thumb drive or CD (one for each week of the year) and send it via a secure courier and then use telco lines for transmission? This looks like yet another ruse to get research money under the guise of quantum cryptography.
No no and no. I'm not meaning to be harsh but everything you said is misunderstood. The point is not to achieve security by doing things really slowly, the point of quantum cryptograhpy (wikipedias quite good) is that if anyone intercepts your photons/information, you know about it. So you can resend the information, using a differenet channel, whatever. It is very important in crypto to be able to guarantee that no-one else has your key.
Entirely true in the classical, everyday world, and you'd think so on small scales (individual photons/atoms) too.. but actually wrong. Quantum states cannot be coppied (no cloning theorem). This is where the security of quamtum cryptography lies. There's nothing to stop someone from eavesdropping on your fibre, but if they do intercept anything you know about it. The only way they can get information without you knowing is if you accidently send the information twice, ie two photons in a pulse instead of one. Thats where this research is useful, its anything but pointless.
I don't see how transmitting single photons at a time as opposed to the millions used today would give a speed increase, the fastest quantum cryptography demonstrated so far achieved a rate of 500b/s, compared to 500Mb/s for normal fibre communication. It's only real purpose is cryptography.
(e.g. the 'buyback' may not be cash on the barrelhead, but instead a credit towards a more expensive diamond, making it an upgrade, not a refund. This is very profitable for the jeweller, enabling them to effectively sell you the gem you can afford now vs. a decade ago, to collect additional revenue, while recouping the full 'buyback' price by selling the 'returned' diamond to a new customer at full price)
Appraised price is meaningless and unattainable, making diamonds a poor investment for those outside the trade.