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IEEE Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security (HST)

Battelle QKD test bed

Alex Morrow, Don Hayford, Matthieu Legré

Published Nov 1, 2012• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Modern communication systems rely on encryption technology based on difficult mathematical problems, such as factoring large numbers, to protect sensitive data. Existing algorithms have demonstrated that these classically hard-to-solve problems may be solved easily by quantum computing. Even though existing data is still protected, future data will not be. Moreover, encrypted data that is captured and saved will become vulnerable as current cryptographic methods are compromised. This emerging situation has prompted a number of researchers to develop alternative methods for encryption that are provably secure. One such method is to use quantum key distribution (QKD) technology.

DOI
10.1109/ths.2012.6459843

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Modern communication systems rely on encryption technology based on difficult mathematical problems, such as factoring large numbers, to protect sensitive data. Existing algorithms have demonstrated that these classically hard-to-solve problems may be solved easily by quantum computing. Even though existing data is still protected, future data will not be. Moreover, encrypted data that is captured and saved will become vulnerable as current cryptographic methods are compromised. This emerging situation has prompted a number of researchers to develop alternative methods for encryption that are provably secure. One such method is to use quantum key distribution (QKD) technology.
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The potential computational speedup that quantum algorithms offer in certain problems threatens the security of current cryptographic techniques that rely on the infeasibility of factoring large numbers. But the same technology that currently threatens public-key infrastructure also provides a seeming alternative: a protocol for quantum key distribution (QKD), which provides a secure method for establishing a secret key between two participants. These two people can then use this key to encrypt information, providing them with the ability to communicate securely
Modern-day secure communication is made possible via cryptography. Modern cryptographic algorithms are based on the process of factoring large integers into their primes, as they are intractable. But the cryptography we use nowadays is vulnerable to technological advances in computing power like quantum computing and evolution in math to quickly reverse one-way functions like factorization of large integers. Incorporating quantum physics concepts into cryptography is the answer, which results in an assessment of quantum cryptography. A unique type of cryptography known as quantum cryptography makes advantage of quantum mechanics to provide complete protection against the transmitted message. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), a random binary key distribution used in quantum cryptography, enables communication participants to recognize unauthorized listeners. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is likely the most advanced quantum technology currently accessible with full-stack systems already in use. This project’s goal is to develop secure and encrypted communication between the parties with the help of a web application using the BB84 protocol.
Secure communication plays a vital role now-a-days. Modern-day secure communication is made possible via cryptography. Modern cryptographic algorithms are based on the process of factoring large integers into their primes, as they are intractable. But the cryptography nowadays is vulnerable to technological advances in computing power like quantum computing and evolution in math to quickly reverse one-way functions like factorization of large integers. Incorporating quantum physics concepts into cryptography is the answer, which results in an assessment of quantum cryptography. A unique type of cryptography known as quantum cryptography makes advantage of quantum mechanics to provide complete protection against the transmitted message. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), a random binary key distribution used in quantum cryptography, enables communication participants to recognize unauthorized listeners. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is likely the most advanced quantum technology currently accessible with full stack systems already in use. This project’s goal is to develop secure and encrypted communication between the parties with the help of a web application using the BB84 protocol.
Data protection and information security have been the essence of communication in today's digital era. Authentication and secrecy of secure communication are achieved using key-based cryptographic primitives; the security of which significantly relies upon the underlying computationally complex mathematics. Moreover, these existing cryptographic primitives are considered to be non-deterministic on the basis of the existing computational capabilities. However, the considerable advancements in the development of quantum computers have significantly enhanced parallel computations; thereby, posing a great threat to these existing encryption primitives. Thus, in the future, the physical manifestation of a large successful quantum computer is likely to break all the existing public-key encryption algorithms in no time. This has led to a remarkable surge of interest in propelling quantum mechanics into existence; subsequently, leading cryptographers to research various viable domains to offer quantum-resistant secure communications. Resultantly, quantum cryptography/quantum key distribution has emerged as a futuristic replacement for classical cryptography as it offers unconditionally secure communication along with the inherent detection of any unintended user. Thus, keeping in view the significance of this relatively newer domain of cryptography, this research focuses on presenting a consolidated review of the various Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocols. A comparative analysis of the working mechanism of the prominent QKD protocols is presented along with an overview of the various emerging trends that have been proposed to optimize the implementational efficiency of the BB84 protocol.
Quantum Computers are designed to be sufficiently large to be able to efficiently solve specific problems that would take an impractical amount of time to solve using classical computers. The most widely discussed application of quantum computing technology is more powerful algorithms, which efficiently solves all instances of integer factorization—a number theoretic problem that is the foundation of the most of the existing public-key encryption schemes. This means that all public-key cryptographic systems commonly used on the Internet for security will become as insecure as an open communication channel, easy to eavesdrop on or to tamper with. Moreover, traffic passes through numerous fixed, mobile and personal sensors connected to the Internet. This extremely large amount of data becomes the “air” of IoT and only a small part of it will be automatically analysed for a specific purpose. Nevertheless, an important part of the immense amount of data exchanged across the network is sensitive. Presently, these data communication and storage are protected by encryption, but that means of protection will be lost to a future quantum adversary. Because of these urgent necessities, products implementing quantum-resistant security solutions can be built and put into operation in a “post-quantum world”. This must be done now because cryptography research is currently inventing and standardizing new cryptographic algorithms. Once the new algorithms are widely and publicly agreed upon, systems with old encryption will remain vulnerable. This topic is motivated by the above.