digg user kinthiri explains:
Quantum cryptography is unbreakable because if any 3rd party views it that does not have the credentials and is not the intended recipient, the simple viewing of the encrypted data by that third party changes that data such that even the intended recipient can’t decrypt it. Thus they know that there is a 3rd party viewing the stream. Effectively the data self destructs if anyone attempts to intercept it or decrypt it. This is not a new phenomenon.

What is new is that its being used commercially. It had previously been used experimentally by the military in association with researchers, but this is the first time its been brought to life outside test environments and is available commercially.

The nature of quantum mechanics makes this truly unbreakable. You couldn’t even factor this using your own quantum computer, if you could even get one with enough qbits.

read more | digg story

Quantum encryption systems use lasers to generate individual pulses of light called photons. Each photon is sent in one of two modes, either vertical/horizontal, or plus 45 degrees/minus 45 degrees. Within each mode, one orientation represents the digital value 0, and the other represents the digital value 1. To visualize how this works, imagine that each photon is a tiny envelope moving perpendicular to the ground (vertical=1), parallel to the ground (horizontal=0), tilted at 45 degrees to the right (plus 45 degrees =1) or tilted 45 degrees to the left (minus 45 degrees=0). NIST 

Its almost scary how much has been done in relatively so little time in the “Information Age” and its only just the beginning.  
 

The possibilities are unimaginable.  I thought it was a bit extreme when I read an Author C. Clarke sci-fi novel called, Light of Other Days in which people can send messages directly from brain to brain (some sort of brain to brain Internet) via a device that sends messages on a subatomic level.  Now it doesn’t sound so strange anymore (well, ok, its still strange but it seem possible now).
 

Here are some mind blowing articles about quantum entanglement:
 

Quantum Teleportation of data (actually it’s the instantaneous transfer of quantum states, but teleportation sounds cooler)
      The thing is that it has already being done:
      http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/08/0818_040818_teleportation.html
      http://www.research.ibm.com/quantuminfo/teleportation/
      http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=ABBA5449-E7F2-99DF-3ACFAC15B16FEC60&colID=30
      http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/12870
 

Quantum Entanglement as an explanation for so called psychic phenomenon:
      Highly controversial as parapsychology is the “leprosy” of
      science.  Just a hypothesis but interesting:
      http://www.deanradin.com/NewWeb/EMblurbs.html

Tags: qkd, quantum, key, distribution, crypto, cryptography

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