Unbreakable Encryption?

[stevie lee]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7661311.stm

Perfect secrecy has come a step closer with the launch of the world's first computer network protected by unbreakable quantum encryption at a scientific conference in Vienna.

and when you read it a bit..

As we saw in the demonstration: when an intruder did try to listen in on the quantum exchange, photons became scrambled, and a rise in the error rate at the node detectors signalled the attack. The system automatically shut down without being compromised

so basically: its impossible to hack into the system to view the data, but if you do try and hack it the system will shut down so no-one can view the data.

bringing the system down just became a hell-of-a-lot easier.. hack-it and crash-it..


/me waits for governments to use the system..

[kalniel]

That was just a demo - in reality you'd just stop the compromised data and restart it using a different connection or maybe even ID code or something.

[Agent]

/me waits for governments to use the system..

Why? They'd only lose the photons

[finlay666]

It's not unbreakable, its that if it's compromised they will know about it, which is quite different

And it's the system for sending the keys, not really practical for the data itself as a very slow attack would kill the system for files, but keys are small so could make it through easier

[stevie lee]

aah righty - misunderstood what it was for.. (techy stuff whizzes over my head sometimes)

[mediaboy]

Techy stuff wizzing over your head? After over 750 posts on this forum?


Nice to know that I'm not the only one.

[Steve]

The concept of unbreakable encryption is boll... rubbish.

With quantum encryption comes quantum hacking, simple as that.

And there's the added problem of storing quantum encryption keys. The chip on your card hardly has the capability to store that stuff, but a quantum computer could sure as hell crack it (in fact chip and pin is hilariously easy to crack without such as-yet-unavailable hardware).

/cynicism

[JK Ferret]

Techy stuff wizzing over your head? After over 750 posts on this forum?


Nice to know that I'm not the only one.

All techy stuff is about 1 million miles over me, and I think I hold the post record for being in that position

[mediaboy]

Give me a few months.. I'll catch up yet.

[JK Ferret]

Come on, you must have some techyness somewhere...

Techiest I get is when I know what batteries something uses

[mediaboy]

AA for my mouse, AAA for my keyboard.

I think.

[stevie lee]

750 posts.. more like 1200.. banter and welcome don't count towards post count..

12v 33ah scooter battery + soldered on jump leads = bigger battery for portable drills



just thought of something else that might go wrong with this 'photon flinging' encryption whotsit.

what happens if both computers at either end of the wire send a photon at the same time? could end up creating a black hole.. if CERN cant get it right, what hope do anyone else?

[AdamAnubis]

So really, the LHC was created so they could hack this system? Fair play tbh

[mediaboy]

Out of interest - didn't the BBC do some sort of test where they saw how many hits you got per minute from things that affected your network?

Would that have a big enough effect on the photons to shut down the system?