Information Security in a Quantum World

Wang, Xiang-bin

Arpan Deyasi, Pampa Debnath, Siddhartha Bhattacharyya

An exponential rise in the demand of secured information processing requires an alternative approach from the conventional classical world, and the present scientific community believes that one of the most distinctive physical resources of the quantum world is quantum entanglement. It is a unique correlation between the components of quantum multipartite systems, which has never been observed in the classical macroscopic world. It is a tool that not only explains the effectiveness and fruitfulness of quantum information processing compared to its classical counterpart but also becomes significant from the security point of view when quantum communication is considered. The most trusted and investigated resource till date is quantum entanglement, for the purpose of secured data communication. Similar to energy, quantum entanglement is a physical resource connected to the odd nonclassical connections that can occur between distant quantum systems. Using a pair of entangled quantum systems, it is feasible to carry out computing operations that are impractical for conventional systems. Quantum information theory is a broad study of the information processing capabilities of quantum systems.

Rui A. P. Perdigão

Carole A Harper, Michael R. Grimaila, Gerald Baumgartner

Abstract Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) systems combine cryptographic primitives with quantum information theory to produce a theoretic unconditionally secure cryptographic key. However, real‐world implementations of QKD systems are far from ideal and significantly differ from the theoretic models. Because of this real‐world QKD systems require additional practical considerations when implemented to achieve secure operations. In this paper, a content analysis of the published literature is conducted to determine if established security and cryptographic standards are addressed in real world, practical QKD implementations. The research reveals that a majority of real world QKD implementations examined do not take advantage of established security and cryptographic standards. Based upon an analysis of existing industry security and cryptographic standards and best practices, systems architecture guidelines are used to make recommendations for how these standards can and should be applied to establish a practical, secure, QKD system framework.

Carole A Harper

Abstract : Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) systems combine cryptographic primitives with quantum information theory to produce a theoretic unconditionally secure cryptographic key. However, real-world implementations of QKD systems are far from ideal and differ significantly from the theoretic model. Because of this, real-world QKD systems require additional practical considerations when implemented to achieve secure operations. In this thesis, a content analysis of the published literature is conducted to determine if established security and cryptographic standards and best practices are addressed in real world, practical QKD implementations. The research reveals that most published, real world QKD implementations do not take advantage of established security and cryptographic standards and best practices. Based upon an analysis of existing security and cryptographic standards and best practices, systems architecture methodology is used to make recommendations as to how these standards can and should be applied to establish a practical, secure, QKD system framework.

ROBERT M. SLADE