Hackers have been getting better and better, worrisome to those of us vulnerable to identity theft, which is all of us. So when physicists finally proved the possibility of constructing a quantum information channel, I breathed a little easier.
For the first time, physicists were able to identify individual returning photons after firing them and reflecting them off a space satellite in orbit. This proved the feasibility of building a completely secure channel for global communication using quantum mechanics.
This is good for places like banks and communication companies (like your cell phone company) because it is the only form of communication that could ensure beyond any doubt that there are no eavesdroppers.
The research team is from Padova University in Italy and shot their photons at the Japanese Ajisai Satellite. Before now, the longest distance quantum-encrypted communication could be verified was 150 kilometers. This satellite was 1,500 kilometers above the earth.
The team is now working on emitting and receiving quantum keys, strings of 1s and 0s. I’ll continue to update with more information as it becomes available, as they continue to improve on this really cool high-tech form of communication.
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1 comment:
QC is great, but in general communications are "misused" at the endpoints, not in the channel.
Nothing wrong with increasing the fidelity of the channel, but it's not the way to make your money any safer in the current world ...
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