Cryptography Watch

A New Scientist article reports that Swiss Election officials have revealed that a Quantum Communication link will be used in the upcoming national election to protect the integrity of votes during transmission. Votes tallied at counting centers in the state of Geneva will be transmitted to the government’s central data repository over the connection. The goal according to Geneva state chancellor Robert Hensler, is to “verify that data has not been corrupted in transit between entry and storage”.

Quantum Communications links have seen very limited usage so far. Even Government and Military applications have seem to have seen infrequent deployment. Some individuals have started that they think that the anti-eavesdropping quantum communication technology is a bit of a gimmick to suggest security may stronger and better deployed than it actually is. This may be in part due to the fact that Quantum Communication links are often called “unbreakable” and “encryption” when in actuality they are neither of those things. For example, Frank Jordans with the Associated Press made that mistake in his coverage of the Swiss technology deployment. Data is typically encrypted with a standard algorithm, such as AES or a stream cypher before being transmitted. CryptoWatch has covered TeleColoning as a possible method for eavesdropping on Quantum Communication links and MIT scientists have simulated such an attack in order to prove that it is possible.

However, it cannot be argued that the technology does not provides additional security. I believe the lack of adoption is due primarily to the level of skill and knowledge necessary to properly deploy the technology and the overall cost of such deployments. However, the Swiss have found an excellent and worthwhile early use. With a highly charged election on the horizon it makes good sense to attempt to strengthen and reinforce the machinery of democracy against attack be any those who would seek to corrupt or defeat it - foreign or domestic. Perhaps, in the future there will be parallel highly secure Quantum Communication Link networks available that any one can use for an additional metered cost, much like toll roads.

ChannelNews Asia reports that Singapore has announced a S$150m in funds for a Quantum Computation research center to be located at the National University of Singapore. The research center will be called the Research Centre of Excellence on Quantum Information Science and Technology, or QIST.

Statements senior Singaporian officials indicate that the center will work on Quantum Communication and Quantum Cryptography. Specifically, on communication systems which make use of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to preclude tapping. Professor Ekert, Director of the Research Centre of Excellence, suggested that the motivation behind the creation of the center was partially to provide domestically manufactured versions of such communications systems. The validation testing of secure communications devices can be difficult, problematic, and expensive.

The high level of recent interest in Quantum Communication Technology may indicate that the technology is nearing a level of development which will allow for widespread application. MIT has recently announced a Quantum Computation research center and scientists at MIT have been examining the security of Quantum Communication Devices, like those developed by BBN.

An article in Nature reports that Dr. Jeffrey Shapiro and his team at the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT have demonstrated simulated eavesdropping on a quantum communication link.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has announced that The Keck Foundation has funded a major new center for Quantum Information Theory. The new W. M. Keck Foundation Center for Extreme Quantum Information Theory (xQIT) will focus of the research areas of adiabatic quantum computing; quantum channel capacity; and quantum sensing and control.

Is quantum communication tapable with out detection? Work by scientists in Japan and the UK seems to suggest that it’s possible. There’s a theoretical limit of 66% accuracy. More importantly, the scientists were not able to attempt to determine the most important particle characteristic, polarization, which is most often used to encode information.

In addition to representing a new quantum-information tool,
telecloning may have an exotic application: tapping quantum
cryptographic channels. Quantum cryptographic protocols are so
secure that they may discover tapping. Nonetheless, with
telecloning, the identity and location of the eavesdropper could be
guaranteed uncompromised. (Koike et al., Physical Review Letters, 17
February 2006; for an earlier partial demonstration of telecloning,
between an original photon and one clone at a remote location and
another clone local to it, see Zhao et al., Phys Rev Lett, 13 July
2005)

New Scientist is reporting that the first communication network protected by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal has been activated in Cambridge, Massachusetts:

First Quantum Cryptography Network Unveiled

The article states that the network linking six systems at Harvard University and BBN’s Cambridge, MA office is secured by keys exchanged with single known spin photons. It currently is limited to a range of 20Km due to noise degradation.