Hackers, beware: a new quantum-cryptography method designed at U of T may soon increase Internet-communication security.
Quantum cryptography uses particles of light to share encryption keys relayed through fibre optic communications. A paper published in Physical Review Letter demonstrates how senders can vary the intensity of laser light particles (photons) to create decoys that catch eavesdropping attempts.
This new technique manipulates a laser to create different signals of various intensities. The signals act as decoys to distract the eavesdropper from the message containing the encryption key. “Any attack will necessarily affect the decoy states and therefore be caught by the legitimate users, who will then use an encryption key only when it is guaranteed to be secure,” says the study’s lead author Professor Hoi-Kwong Lo of U of T’s department of electrical and computer engineering and department of physics
Recent Posts
Meet Anne Dale, Dentistry’s Unofficial Historian
The museum she curates at the Faculty of Dentistry holds thousands of objects that tell the story of the profession in Canada
Heroes of Our Time
Members of the U of T community are working alongside colleagues from around the world to respond to the pandemic
Whose Stories Do We Tell?
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography aims to record noteworthy lives from “all points of view.” Six decades into its mission, what that means is still up for debate
