A Hack-Proof Internet Exists, Thanks to Quantum Physics
Leave it to the quantum physicists at Los Alamos National Labs to have run for the past two years something that sounded like science fiction: a quantum Internet that promises perfectly secure online communications.
While hackers have gotten much better in the past decade at intercepting alphanumeric keys used to transmit most electronic message or unlocking passwords with brute-force attacks, the Los Alamos system uses cryptography based on the intrinsic randomness of quantum physics. Its digital keys, generated by a truly random set of numbers, theoretically leave hackers with no way to figure out the key’s internal coding.
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A second layer of security lies in the passage of the key to its recipient. The key is effectively transported by photons of light along a dedicated fiber optic line. Per Heisenberg’s famous uncertainty principle, hack attempts would have clear effects on those particles. As MIT Technology Review puts it, “any attempt to eavesdrop on a quantum message cannot fail to leave telltale signs of snooping that the receiver can detect.”
So while the rest of us are still prey to the spying eyes of the Chinese army, larcenous Eastern European fraudsters, or the FBI, a select research team in New Mexico can engage in snoop-proof online communication—a massive breakthrough for the security of our personal data, as well as for nationwide endeavors such as online banking and voting.
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