Weird Science: Using Quantum Mechanics to Bolster Security

One of the strangest and most counter-intuitive areas in science is quantum mechanics. Even scientists think it is weird. Nobel prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr famously commented that “[i]f quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet.” Albert Einstein, whose discoveries on the dual packet- and wave-nature of light are key building blocks of quantum science, dismissed it with the even more famous line that “God does not play dice with the universe.”

None of that means that it isn’t potentially useful. For years, scientists have understood that certain things about quantum mechanics make them good candidates for security tasks. A couple of recent stories suggest that quantum tools may be coming closer to reality.

This Dr. Dobbs Portal posting describes — in mercifully general terms — research by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on efforts to create quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. Keys are the codes that allow encrypted data to be restored to its original form. Researchers have long sought foolproof ways of distributing the keys.

Quantum approaches may be just what the Ph.D.s ordered. One characteristic of quantum science is that it is impossible to measure things without altering them. The benefit of QKD, therefore, is that bells and whistles will go off if a third party — a criminal — tries to read the private key. The story details efforts to build practical QKD systems that are usable with current telecommunications gear and otherwise are efficient enough to make them viable. The Chinese government also is working on QKD systems.