Roadmap on optical security

Ayman Alfalou, Christian Brosseau

Hongtao Wang, Haoran Zhang, Xiaoyan Zhou +8 more

Bahram Javidi, Artur Carnicer, Masahiro Yamaguchi +25 more

Abstract Information security and authentication are important challenges facing society. Recent attacks by hackers on the databases of large commercial and financial companies have demonstrated that more research and development of advanced approaches are necessary to deny unauthorized access to critical data. Free space optical technology has been investigated by many researchers in information security, encryption, and authentication. The main motivation for using optics and photonics for information security is that optical waveforms possess many complex degrees of freedom such as amplitude, phase, polarization, large bandwidth, nonlinear transformations, quantum properties of photons, and multiplexing that can be combined in many ways to make information encryption more secure and more difficult to attack. This roadmap article presents an overview of the potential, recent advances, and challenges of optical security and encryption using free space optics. The roadmap on optical security is comprised of six categories that together include 16 short sections written by authors who have made relevant contributions in this field. The first category of this roadmap describes novel encryption approaches, including secure optical sensing which summarizes double random phase encryption applications and flaws [Yamaguchi], the digital holographic encryption in free space optical technique which describes encryption using multidimensional digital holography [Nomura], simultaneous encryption of multiple signals [Pérez-Cabré], asymmetric methods based on information truncation [Nishchal], and dynamic encryption of video sequences [Torroba]. Asymmetric and one-way cryptosystems are analyzed by Peng. The second category is on compression for encryption. In their respective contributions, Alfalou and Stern propose similar goals involving compressed data and compressive sensing encryption. The very important area of cryptanalysis is the topic of the third category with two sections: Sheridan reviews phase retrieval algorithms to perform different attacks, whereas Situ discusses nonlinear optical encryption techniques and the development of a rigorous optical information security theory. The fourth category with two contributions reports how encryption could be implemented at the nano- or micro-scale. Naruse discusses the use of nanostructures in security applications and Carnicer proposes encoding information in a tightly focused beam. In the fifth category, encryption based on ghost imaging using single-pixel detectors is also considered. In particular, the authors [Chen, Tajahuerce] emphasize the need for more specialized hardware and image processing algorithms. Finally, in the sixth category, Mosk and Javidi analyze in their corresponding papers how quantum imaging can benefit optical encryption systems. Sources that use few photons make encryption systems much more difficult to attack, providing a secure method for authentication.

Bahram Javidi, Artur Carnicer, Kavan Ahmadi +25 more

In 1994, Javidi and Horner published a paper in Optical Engineering that highlighted the ability of free space optical systems to manipulate sensitive data for authentication purposes. The underlying idea was effective yet surprisingly simple: an optical nonlinear joint transform using a random phase mask in both the input and the reference could produce a correlation peak to indicate whether the input object is authentic or not. This seminal paper fueled the development of this new discipline. After three decades, optical encryption and security have matured into a field that plays a central role in the development of photonics techniques. While the pioneering work was mainly focused on the field of optical information processing, nowadays, a broad spectrum of disciplines are contributing to developing security solutions, including nanotechnology, materials science, quantum information, and deep learning, just to cite a few. The present roadmap paper gathers 28 leading authors in the field from 21 academic institutions across nine different countries. It is organized into 17 sections which discuss the present and future challenges, state-of-the-art technology, and real-world solutions to address the security challenges facing our society.

Naveen Kumar Nishchal

Mario Agio, Jacques Cochard, Thierry Robin +2 more

The COST Action MP1403 “Nanoscale Quantum Optics” (NQO) has recently released a NQO Roadmap identifying research priorities that address both classical and quantum schemes in information and communication technology, sensing and metrology, and energy efficiency. Based on the Roadmap, the COST Action has been working on a Market Research Study (MRS) to assess the potential of NQO for selected applications and markets in a more quantitative manner. The MRS has been carried out with the cooperation of Tematys and it has been focused on two areas: (i) quantum sensing, imaging and measurement systems: achieve unprecedented sensitivity, accuracy and resolution in measurement and imaging by coherently manipulating quantum objects and (ii) quantum communications: guarantee secure data transmission and long-term security for the information society by using quantum resources for communication protocols. The MRS has primarily addressed near-term technologies, like quantum random number generators (QRNG) for secure key or token generation and point-to-point quantum key distribution (QKD) for secure key exchange in crypto systems. Mid/long-term technologies like QKD networks, quantum memories and repeaters have not been assessed. Likewise for quantum sensing, imaging and metrology the focus has been on near-term technologies like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic/electric field detection for materials analysis and biosensing, precision metrology and gravimetric sensors for civil and defense applications. The MRS has also taken into account quantum enabling technologies, which are fundamental components for the construction of quantum-photonics systems.