The practical implementation of quantum information technologies requires, for the most part, highly advanced and currently experimental procedures. One exception is quantum cryptography, or quantum key distribution, which has been successfully demonstrated in many laboratories and has reached an advanced level of development. The purpose of this paper is to present comparative studies regarding the percentages of quantum errors which appear when obtaining the cryptographic keys in the case of two quantum key distribution protocols: Chen et al. (four-state quantum key distribution scheme) and Bruβ (six-state quantum key distribution scheme). Were followed the variation of the percentage of errors in the case of these symmetrical protocols in two situations: the absence and the presence of cyber-attacks (Intercept-Resend attack), and, analyze the degree of security of the protocols.
The practical implementation of quantum information technologies requires, for the most part, highly advanced and currently experimental procedures. One exception is quantum cryptography, or quantum key distribution, which has been successfully demonstrated in many laboratories and has reached an advanced level of development. The purpose of this paper is to present comparative studies regarding the percentages of quantum errors which appear when obtaining the cryptographic keys in the case of two quantum key distribution protocols: Chen et al. (four-state quantum key distribution scheme) and Bruβ (six-state quantum key distribution scheme). Were followed the variation of the percentage of errors in the case of these symmetrical protocols in two situations: the absence and the presence of cyber-attacks (Intercept-Resend attack), and, analyze the degree of security of the protocols.
The existing studies proved the importance of quantum key distribution protocols,unfortunately, most of them have been known only as theoretical models. Starting from the mathematical models, this study explores quantum alternatives to traditional key distribution protocols and involves software implementations of the quantum key distribution protocols with two, three and four-state systems. The paper presents the results obtained on case of the cybernetic attack simulation, type Intercept-Resend - the well known attack on quantum world, over the each protocol. Presence of the eavesdropper is determined by calculating the errors obtained at the end of transmission through quantum channel. The method Quantum Error Rate for detecting the eavesdropper can be applied to the majority key distribution systems, each system having its own acceptable error rate. Starting from the same size of input data, the paper presents an analysis of the data obtained on cybernetic attack simulations and analyzes the percentage of errors by comparison with the dimensions of the cryptographic keys obtained in the case of each protocol.
The accelerating development of quantum computing capabilities poses an unprecedented challenge to conventional encryption methodologies that currently underpin global digital security infrastructure. Classical cryptographic systems, including widely adopted standards such as RSA and AES, derive their security from the computational intractability of specific mathematical problems, a foundation that quantum algorithms threaten to fundamentally undermine. This research presents a comprehensive investigation into the practical implementation of Quantum Key Distribution as a transformative approach to establishing unconditionally secure communication channels. Through experimental deployment of the BB84 protocol augmented with advanced quantum error correction and privacy amplification techniques, we systematically evaluate the performance characteristics and security guarantees of QKD in realistic network environments. Our experimental framework achieves a secure key generation rate of 2.5 megabits per second while maintaining an average quantum bit error rate of 3.2 percent, demonstrating the practical viability of quantum-secured communication. The implementation exhibits exceptional eavesdropping detection capabilities with a 98.5 percent success rate in identifying unauthorized interception attempts. Comparative security analysis reveals that QKD-based encryption reduces vulnerability to brute-force attacks by 65 percent when contrasted with classical encryption standards. The integration of lattice-based post-quantum cryptographic algorithms provides an additional security layer against store-now-decrypt-later attack strategies. These findings substantiate the position of Quantum Key Distribution as a cornerstone technology for next-generation cybersecurity frameworks, offering robust protection against both current threats and the anticipated capabilities of large-scale quantum computers.
Communications in secrecy are often required in many commercial and military applications. Unfortunately, many cryptographic schemes in use today such as public-key cryptography based on the RSA algorithm would be broken with either unanticipated advances in hardware and algorithm or the advent of quantum computers. Quantum cryptography, on the other hand, has been proven secure even against the most general attack allowed by the laws of physics and is a promising technology poised for widespread adoption in realistic cryptographic applications. Quantum cryptography allows two parties to expand on a secret key that they have previously shared. Various quantum cryptographic protocols have been proposed to perform this task. In this paper, we survey some popular quantum cryptographic protocols (including the famous Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol) and discuss their security. Specifically, we consider their security in two cases: the ideal case where a perfect single-photon source is used and the practical case where a realistic laser source is used. We compare the protocols and find that the efficient six-state protocol outperforms the others both in the tolerable quantum bit error rate and in the key generation rate when a realistic laser source is used.
In this paper, we propose a software implementation of Quantum Key Distribution scheme using twelve orthogonal states in a four-state system. With the twelve states, the Sender can encode two bits classical information in one particle, and distribute her secret key to the Receiver. This study explores quantum alternatives to traditional key distribution protocols, and involves implementations of quantum key distribution protocol on two cases: with and without cyber-attacks (the Intercept-Resend attack).
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is revolutionizing cryptography by promising information-theoretic security through the immutable laws of quantum mechanics. Yet, the challenge of transforming these idealized security models into practical, resilient systems remains a pressing issue, especially as quantum computing evolves. In this review, we critically dissect and synthesize the latest advancements in QKD protocols and their security vulnerabilities, with a strong emphasis on rigorous security proofs. We actively categorize contemporary QKD schemes into three key classes: uncertainty principle-based protocols (e.g., BB84), hybrid architectures that enable secure direct communication (eg, three-stage protocol), and continuous-variable frameworks. We further include two modern classes of QKD protocols, namely Twin-field QKD and Device-Independent QKD, both of which were developed to have practical implementations over the last decade. Moreover, we highlight important experimental breakthroughs and innovative mitigation strategies, including the deployment of advanced Quantum Error Correction Codes (QECCs), that significantly enhance channel fidelity and system robustness. By mapping the current landscape, from sophisticated quantum attacks to state-of-the-art error correction methods, this review fills an important gap in the literature. To bring everything together, the relevance of this review concerning quantum augmented networks (QuANets) is also presented. This allows the readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the security promises of quantum key distribution from theoretical proofs to experimental validations.
Currently, theoretical and experimental work in the field of quantum cryptography is being carried out in many research centers around the world. Over the past two decades since the start of active research, many quantum cryptographic protocols have been proposed, a significant number of laboratory experiments have been performed on their practical implementation, important work has been done to prove the resistance of the proposed protocols to certain types of attacks, and the first commercial quantum key distribution systems have been developed. However, there are still many tasks and problems in the field of quantum cryptography, the solution of which is of great scientific and technical importance. So, in particular, such a promising direction as quantum protocols for direct secure communication requires further development, allowing, under certain conditions, to transfer secret information without encryption, both between two and between a large number of users. Currently, such protocols have been developed using two-and three-particle entangled states, but there are almost no similar protocols with entangled states of a larger number of qubits that do not require large quantum memory for their implementation and, at the same time, have a large information capacity. Therefore, the development of new quantum direct secure communication protocols with increased information capacity, the analysis of their resistance to attacks, as well as the determination of the best protocols according to the criteria of resistance and information capacity.