Thermodynamic based cryptography trumping quantum based?

[edd]

It has been shown recently that the use of two pairs of resistors with enhanced Johnson-noise and a Kirchhoff-loop-i.e., a Kirchhoff-Law-Johnson-Noise (KLJN) protocol-for secure key distribution leads to information theoretic security levels superior to those of a quantum key distribution, including a natural immunity against a man-in-the-middle attack.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1206.2534

I'll admit some of this goes over my head but I'm curious as to what our resident physicists think. Is this type of cryptography based on the second law of thermodynamics really harder to break than that based on quantum mechanics?

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[cbeast]

I doubt it. The funding suggests they are repurposing old technology in new ways to improve older systems. To put down quantum security research belies their wish to have the budget to do quantum security research. In fact, the paper states that quantum encryption is still only theoretical, which is probably true. Still, whether it works or not (because I know little about theoretical physics) I am always a fan of finding new uses for old technology.