Re: [ISN] A New Cryptography Uses The Quirks of Photon Streams

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Tue Nov 05 2002 - 04:05:58 PST

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    Forwarded from: Nikolay Sturm <sturmat_private-darmstadt.de>
    
    * InfoSec News [2002-11-04]:
    > With the system, keys to the code are transmitted as a stream of
    > photons, sent over a fiber optic cable. Because of the properties of
    > quantum physics, the mere act of observing the transmission would
    > alter the photons, rendering their information useless to any
    > eavesdroppers.
    
    This is not true in general, only when single photons are used for
    communication. In reality people use weak laser pulses, which have a
    certain degree of pulses with two or more photons. These permit
    attacks.
    
    > carefully controlled. But outside researchers say that quantum
    > cryptography does make possible electronic conversations that would
    > be immune to eavesdropping.
    
    Not really, often enough you can eavesdrop other channels like the
    keyboard or monitor or whatever.
    
    > Research in quantum cryptography goes back into the 1980's. But
    > MagiQ (pronounced as magic) and a Swiss competitor, ID Quantique,
    > are the first to attempt to develop commercial systems based on the
    > technology. ID Quantique's system has not yet reached the market.
    
    This is plain wrong. ID Quantique sells their system for over 6 month
    now. At the last Cebit in Hannover, Germany, they sold it for 100 000
    Euro, AFAIR.
    
    bye,
    
    Nikolay
    
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