Quantum cryptography uses physics to develop a cryptosystem completely secure against being compromised, without the sender or the receiver of messages being known. The word quantum itself refers to the most fundamental behavior of the smallest particles of matter and energy. Quantum cryptography is different from traditional cryptographic systems in that it relies more on physics, rather than mathematics, as a key aspect of its security model. Essentially, quantum cryptography is based on the usage of individual particles/waves of light (photon) and their intrinsic quantum properties to develop an unbreakable cryptosystem (because it is impossible to measure the quantum state of any system without disturbing that system). Regular, non-quantum encryption can work in a variety of ways but generally a message is scrambled and can only be unscrambled using a secret key. The trick is to make sure that whomever you’re trying to hide your communication from doesn’t get their hands on your secret key.
Quantum cryptography uses physics to develop a cryptosystem completely secure against being compromised, without the sender or the receiver of messages being known. The word quantum itself refers to the most fundamental behavior of the smallest particles of matter and energy. Quantum cryptography is different from traditional cryptographic systems in that it relies more on physics, rather than mathematics, as a key aspect of its security model. Essentially, quantum cryptography is based on the usage of individual particles/waves of light (photon) and their intrinsic quantum properties to develop an unbreakable cryptosystem (because it is impossible to measure the quantum state of any system without disturbing that system). Regular, non-quantum encryption can work in a variety of ways but generally a message is scrambled and can only be unscrambled using a secret key. The trick is to make sure that whomever you’re trying to hide your communication from doesn’t get their hands on your secret key.
Quantum cryptography uses physics to develop a cryptosystem completely secure against being compromised without knowledge of the sender or the receiver of the messages. Regular, non-quantum encryption can work in a variety of ways, but, generally, a message is scrambled and can only be unscrambled using a secret key. Cracking the private key in a modern cryptosystem would generally require figuring out the factors of a number that is the product of two insanely huge prime numbers. The numbers are chosen to be so large that, with the given processing power of computers. But, in practice, quantum cryptography comes with its own load of weaknesses. It was recognized in 2010, for instance, that a hacker could blind a detector with a strong pulse, rendering it unable to see the secret-keeping photons.
Quantum Cryptography is based on the use of subatomic particles (photons) and their intrinsic quantum properties (photon polarization) to develop an unbreakable system. It is not possible to measure the quantum state of any system without affecting the system. This property provides secure transmission of key between sender and receiver. Quantum Cryptography is a way to combine the relative ease and convenience of key exchange in public key cryptography with the ultimate security of a one-time pad. Quantum techniques for key distribution, the classically impossible task of distributing secret information over an insecure channel whose transmissions are subject to inspection by an eavesdropper, between parties who share no secret key initially. Quantum Cryptography uses the principles of Quantum Mechanics to implement a cryptographic system. The key problem which is solved by using quantum techniques is that of eavesdropping detection. The bits are represented as qubits, physically modeled by photons, and communicated over a quantum channel. The polarization states of photons represent 0's and 1's. Keyword: Asymmetric key, Cryptography, Protocols, Quantum, symmetric key
Quantum Cryptography is a novel approach to make the information and network world more secure. Unlike classical cryptography, quantum cryptography ensures the security of communication because it is based on the laws of Quantum Mechanics; a branch of physics that deals with the fundamental behavior of matter and their energies to the levels of subatomic particles. These particles and their intrinsic properties such as photon polarization and entanglement allow us to develop an unbreakable system of cryptographic information. Conventionally, the security has been primarily concerned with the secured distribution of secret key carried over an insecure channel. However, in Quantum Cryptographic systems the transmission of secret key is done using aforementioned laws of nature through a secured quantum channel highly susceptible to intrusion detection. Consequently, the Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), in conjunction with protocols such as BB84 protocol has emerged as an ultimate modern secured communication system. This article concentrates on briefly reviewing quantum cryptography, some recent developments and reports of its vulnerabilities.
Quantum security leads us to the concept of quantum cryptography which uses physics to develop a cryptosystem completely secure against being compromised without the knowledge of the sender or the receiver of the messages. Quantum cryptography uses photons to transmit a key. Once the key is transmitted, coding and encoding using the normal secret-key method can take place. Regular, non-quantum encryption can work in a variety of ways, but, generally, a message is scrambled and can only be unscrambled using a secret key. Quantum computing is still in its development stage with tech giants such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft putting in resources to build powerful quantum computers.
In today’s world, security in data communication has become a top-most priority in every organization. In general, cryptography is defined as the methodology to ensure data is secure by employing suitable encryption and decryption techniques. On the transmitter side, the original message is encrypted using a key. Then the encrypted data is decrypted with the duplicate key at the receiver side as per the accepted protocol between the two parties. In conventional cryptographic techniques, eavesdropping is prevented from accessing the contents of encrypted message by employing certain mathematical function and techniques, but this security methodology does not guarantee any key security. In many scenarios, a secure communication link is established by using a key, but a third party with a bad intent may steal the session keys, giving rise to data security, getting compromised. So in this regard, quantum cryptography is a better alternative when it comes to data security integrity. In this research, a detail about quantum cryptography is elaborated on, and also discussed are various concepts like single photon protocol, loss of data in quantum computing, how quantum is affecting computer communication systems. In conventional cryptographic methodology of data transmission and reception, there is always a probability of eavesdropping leading to the compromising of data integrity and security. The solution to this problem can be obtained by integrating the quantum cryptographic technique with data at the sender as well as the receiver, to detect and minimize various errors by employing suitable bit error scheme. This involves the usage of programming language specific to quantum computing like qcl and quipper to achieve efficient encryption and decryption with faster processing capability.
The word cryptography originates from two Greek words: kryptos (secret) and graphein (writing). Thus cryptography is the art of communicating a message in secret manner or in other words, it is the art of rendering a message unintelligible to any unauthorized party. Its history is very old and exciting. From the beginning of human civilization there was a need to hide information from unauthorized people. This need gave birth to cryptography. Initial cryptographic protocols were very simple. With time they have become much more sophisticated and secure. However, all the classical cryptographic protocols developed so far are secure under some assumptions. In contrast, the protocols of quantum cryptography are unconditionally secure. This particular aspect of quantum cryptography makes it very interesting. This chapter aims to provide a flavor of the intrinsic beauty of various aspects of secure quantum communication. Before we start a journey into the fascinating world of secure quantum communication, it would be apt to become familiar with the jargon used in this field and also with some interesting protocols of classical cryptography. Let us first do that.