Comments on: Quantum Cryptography Cracked!

By: Phill

Phill — Thu, 03 May 2007 10:00:05 +0000

We don’t need to worry about quantum cryptography for decades. Even if the technology is possible nobody who builds a quantum computer is going to let on that they can do it.
The intelligence value of breaking RSA would be so great that it could only be applied to the very most important material. Using it for Nixonian purposes would quickly lead to the ability becoming public and the loss of the sources.
A criminal mastermind building a machine would be detected if they tried to use it more than a few times and cryptography is not the only control in the financial systems in any case.

By: Beryllium Sphere LLC

Beryllium Sphere LLC — Tue, 01 May 2007 17:49:32 +0000

Shamir worked out an attack on the polarization-style quantum key exchange (NOT encryption!) devices years ago. It’s a classic of how to think about security.
Don’t be seduced by the abstraction of white boxes on a Powerpoint slide exchanging photons. They will be real physical pieces of equipment, they will have a nonzero coefficient of reflection, the fact that something is labeled “transmit” doesn’t stop you from aiming a light at it, and Mallory can read the polarization settings directly without ever looking at an entangled photon by simply firing a laser pulse toward the polarizer on the “transmitter”.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 01 May 2007 00:37:14 +0000

Is it a coincidence that this happens just after RAW shuffled off this mortal coil?
I think not.