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Title: Quantum Cryptography breakthrough heralds uncrackable communication networks Post by: Anonymous on October 19, 2010, 03:04:44 AM http://www.toshiba-europe.com/research/crl/qig/Press2010-04-19-qcbreakthrough.html (http://www.toshiba-europe.com/research/crl/qig/Press2010-04-19-qcbreakthrough.html)
Quote Significantly, the breakthrough will enable the everyday use of “one-time pad” encryption, the only known method that is theoretically perfectly secret. Although ultra-secure, the application of one-time pad encryption has been restricted in the past as it requires the transmission of very long secret keys — the same length as the data itself. For this reason it has only been used for short messages in situations requiring very high security, for example by the military and security services. Today's bit rate breakthrough will extend the application of this ultra-secure communication method for everyday use. :o Title: Re: Quantum Cryptography breakthrough heralds uncrackable communication networks Post by: MoonShadow on October 19, 2010, 04:13:05 AM Interesting article, but either the author doesn't know what he is talking about or the company is full of sh*t. Quantum crypto, such as this, could be used to distribute one-time-pad sets, but if you already have a secure data link immune from a man-in-the-middle attack or snooping without detection, a one time pad encryption method is redundant.
I've actually used one-time-pad encryption in the past, and it's incredibly simple and would be great for truly secure text messaging or email, but it requires that the two people communicating actually meet one another to exchange the pad data as well as a truly random pad data source. Computers are never truly random, and that is the flaw in any electronic encryption device. Public/private keypair encryption is very secure, but it is also true that truly random pad data, used only once and then wiped, is secure forever. I've always wondered why no one has ever created a one-time-pad encryption method for SMS or Jabber. Perhaps such a method will be developed once two phones are able to communicate securely directly via near-field communications. |