Futuríveis
quinta-feira, maio 05, 2005
An emerging technology which is set to revolutionise digital security.
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Applications using secure quantum cryptographic techniques are about three years away, according to Toshiba's Dr Andrew Shields, who leads the development group.
Toshiba's breakthrough showed that each frame in a video file could be encrypted using separate keys, which means that cracking one frame of a video - already difficult - would be useless unless all the other frames were cracked, too.
"The key innovation has been to make the system work continuously," Dr Shields explained to the BBC News website.
"This is important if you want to stream data like video. We can send keys, and, just by looking at them, can tell if someone has read them en route," he said.
The laws of quantum physics guarantee that the properties of the photon change if anyone intercepts it and tries to read the information from it.
"Imagine if you received a letter, you opened that letter and read it - there is no way of telling if someone has read that letter en route.
"When you encode the information on single particles, the letter self destructs whenever someone else reads it.
"I sometimes say it is like the messages in Mission Impossible. If anyone tries to read the messages, they self destruct," said Dr Shields.
The self-managing system can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
It could be extended to securely encrypt other data files which require high bandwidth, such as sensitive legal documents, tax records or medical histories, added Dr Shields.
It could also be used to provide links between separate corporate sites allowing for extremely secure file transfers over fibre optic networks.
Company computer networks, where the technology will first be used, are increasingly vulnerable to the theft of keys from desktop machines.
Often this is through hacking attempts, Trojan programs deposited on computers, or malevolent employees.
Toshiba's Quantum Key Server technology would make key theft futile because it allows frequent key refreshing.
Quantum encryption will eventually give companies a "once and for all" security system, said Dr Shields.
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BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Quantum leap in secure web video
Applications using secure quantum cryptographic techniques are about three years away, according to Toshiba's Dr Andrew Shields, who leads the development group.
Toshiba's breakthrough showed that each frame in a video file could be encrypted using separate keys, which means that cracking one frame of a video - already difficult - would be useless unless all the other frames were cracked, too.
"The key innovation has been to make the system work continuously," Dr Shields explained to the BBC News website.
"This is important if you want to stream data like video. We can send keys, and, just by looking at them, can tell if someone has read them en route," he said.
The laws of quantum physics guarantee that the properties of the photon change if anyone intercepts it and tries to read the information from it.
"Imagine if you received a letter, you opened that letter and read it - there is no way of telling if someone has read that letter en route.
"When you encode the information on single particles, the letter self destructs whenever someone else reads it.
"I sometimes say it is like the messages in Mission Impossible. If anyone tries to read the messages, they self destruct," said Dr Shields.
The self-managing system can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
It could be extended to securely encrypt other data files which require high bandwidth, such as sensitive legal documents, tax records or medical histories, added Dr Shields.
It could also be used to provide links between separate corporate sites allowing for extremely secure file transfers over fibre optic networks.
Company computer networks, where the technology will first be used, are increasingly vulnerable to the theft of keys from desktop machines.
Often this is through hacking attempts, Trojan programs deposited on computers, or malevolent employees.
Toshiba's Quantum Key Server technology would make key theft futile because it allows frequent key refreshing.
Quantum encryption will eventually give companies a "once and for all" security system, said Dr Shields.
...
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Quantum leap in secure web video
posted by CMT, 12:08 da manhã
