Slashdot Mirror
China Launches World's First Quantum Communications Satellite (theverge.com)
hackingbear quotes a report from The Verge: China's quantum network could soon span two continents, thanks to a satellite launched earlier today. Launched at 1:40pm ET, the Quantum Science Satellite is designed to distribute quantum-encrypted keys between relay stations in China and Europe. When working as planned, the result could enable unprecedented levels of security between parties on different continents. China's new satellite would put that same fiber-based quantum communication system to work over the air, utilizing high-speed coherent lasers to connect with base stations on two different continents. The experimental satellite's payload also includes controllers and emitters related to quantum entanglement. The satellite will be the first device of its kind if the quantum equipment works as planned. According to the Wall Street Journal, the project was first proposed to the European Space Agency in 2001 but was unable to gain funding.
Yes, I would say that secure key distribution has a military application - secure communications.
Good on them I say, pushing the limits further, real science..
Compare that with the reaction of the DNC to their hacked emails, by creating a board of lawyers
and politicos to fix their security problems. I can only assume by pushing for more spying and
monitoring laws, less encryption, and backdoors in everything, because that helps, right?
Face it, the Chinese are rapidly become world technology leaders, and denial wont stop it.
These days it looks like the Chinese are working hard to become the new Renaissance state, while
the west is rushing to emulate the worst of Maoist stats China through totalitarian control and monitoring
of their citizens..
Sad really, but inevitable with a western population that has become too focused on maximising their own
personal comfort, and running in fear at anything that is unfamiliar or uncomfortable - basically ceding total
control to a state that is more than happy to grab it and run. Those in power will be laughing all the way
to the collapse, with little thought to what happens after.
But dont worry, just keep supporting your liberal left, or your religious right, and ignore the fact that both
sides are playing the same gave of totalitarian control at any cost, while the east gets on with actual
production and development.
This has been proven to work with fibre optic cable. You can't observe a photon without affecting it, and that observation is then detectable. The only difference is that now they are using lasers through the air rather than through fibre optic cables.
It's not perfect, it's still possible that ways will be found to observe the light in a way that the tamper detection doesn't pick up on, but turning that into something you can reasonably hide in a position to intercept those photons is a not insignificant challenge.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
You do know that China simply steals or buys its way into a lot of technological progress, right? Both the USA and Taiwan have recently arrested people who were happy to pass on secrets of various kinds to their masters in the PRC for money.
But I also am a bit amused that you seem to think that quantum encryption - if they even pull it off - won't be used for bad purposes for the state. Maybe you're not aware of this, but people in China are not allowed Twitter or Facebook accounts because - I kid you not kid - the government is terrified of their possible use to mobilize the masses against the Communist Party. Mark Zuckerburg can suck up to them all he wants and continue to learn Mandarin in his spare time but it's not going to get them to relax their paranoia against a street revolution.
I have a question not directed at you. Let's just say for example that they get this to work. Let's say that for now there is no way to break it. Is there a way to mess with the photons so that even if the encryption can't be broken, nobody on either end can use it for communication because it gets scrambled while going between the 2 sites?