Researchers crack code used by banks, defense

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.