Researchers crack code used by banks, defense
Summary
Topics
Researchers at Norwegian and German institutes claim to have successfully cracked the quantum cryptography equipment used to cloak high-sensitive communications by banks and defense agencies.
The researchers said they had remotely controlled the photon detectors used in commercially available photodiode quantum cryptography systems. This allowed them to eavesdrop on communications, the researchers said.
In the attack, the researchers used bright illumination to dazzle the photon detectors. The detectors were fooled by classical laser pulses superimposed over the quantum signal, the researchers said in a letter to Nature Photonics. According to the researchers, the attack will work for most QKD systems that use avalanche photodiodes, which are semiconductors that convert light to electricity. Most QKD systems use avalanche photodiodes.
For more of this story, read Quantum crypto detectors cracked by researchers on ZDNet UK.
Talkback Most Recent of 5 Talkback(s)
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RE: Researchers crack code used by banks, defense
Sorta what you would do to capture deer, at night...
FiOS-Dave2nd Sep 2010 -
Yeah. Suuuure.
From an earlier paper: "Scientists at Northwestern University say they have harnessed the properties of light to encrypt information into code that can be cracked only one way: by breaking the physical laws of nature."
http://www.zdnet.com/news/new-light-shed-on-unbreakable-encryption/126313
PC Ferret2nd Sep 2010 -
RE: Researchers crack code used by banks, defense
You have to be physically present and have the equipment to it it with you. How easy is that to do? haha.... what a joke!
If it's not a remote hack or crack...... what good is it? If you have to still break into where the military has armed guards ready to blast you away, how in the world is that anything to brag about? So this is all done in a lab that in no way means it can be actually carried out!
i2fun@...3rd Sep 2010 -
Yes, sure...
@i2fun@... Actually, the distance between the two ends is now in the 10 kilometer range, and probably will get much longer over time. The whole point of using secure systems is precisely because the data will be traveling through unsecure areas.
The method proposed by the hackers uses a woman-in-the-middle (traditionally named "Eve") attack (see http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nphoton.2010.214.html ). While the whole point of quantum cryptography is that when you do so the entanglement is broken and the message is lost, as the article above implies this requires special properties of the detectors at both ends. The hack overpowers these special properties, and in addition happens to allow Eve to send whatever signals she wants to both ends without being detected. Thus Eve can copy the messages from one end to the other, including the key exchanges, and decode the messages.
zackers6th Sep 2010 -
Bad link
The link "Quantum crypto detectors cracked by researchers" at the end of the story doesn't go anywhere. I think the proper link is http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/security/2010/09/01/quantum-crypto-detectors-cracked-by-researchers-40089980/?s_cid=938 .zackers6th Sep 2010
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