Quantum encryption technology may pave the way for completely secure
credit cards.
by John
Tyburski
Copyright © Daily
Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
This week,
a new report published
in the journal Optica by a team of Dutch researchers indicates that
quantum encryption would be virtually “unhackable” and is not that far off in
credit card applications. The technology, called “quantum cryptography,
harnesses the unique properties of subatomic particles to thwart would-be
hackers and identity thieves.
Scientists
at the University of Twente and Eindhoven University of Technology say they are
a step closer to delivering quantum-secure authentication (QSA)of a “classical
multiple-scattering key.” Such a key is deciphered and authenticated with a
pulse of light consisting of fewer photons than degrees of freedom. Then the
spatial shape of the reflected light is detected and verified. It is basically
unhackable, “even if all information about the key is publicly known.” The
characteristics of quantum physics principles prevent the optical response to
the key from being mimicked or emulated.
In other
words, security would no longer depend on secrecy or weak mathematical
assumptions. QSA takes advantage of quantum mechanics to offer an absolute
encryption scheme. A strip of nanoparticles could be added to a credit card or
passport, and the strip would be illuminated with a laser to generate a unique
reflection pattern that cannot be hacked.
The
approach would be “straightforward to implement with current technology,”
according to study lead author Pepijn Pinkse. “It would be like dropping 10
bowling balls onto the ground and creating 200 separate impacts. It’s
impossible to know precisely what information was sent (what pattern was
created on the floor) just by collecting the 10 bowling balls.”
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