For your eyes only...
31 August 2004
Attention all secret agents! Quantum computers will one day crack today's unbreakable codes. But crypto experts in Austria are keeping ahead of the game. They've just sent the first money transfer using quantum secured codes.
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Image: Institut fuer Experimentalphysik, University Wien
Work has already started on quantum computers. These will be capable of doing millions of sums simultaneously.
Being so much faster than normal computers will make them ideal for spies trying to crack codes to read secret messages.
Being so much faster than normal computers will make them ideal for spies trying to crack codes to read secret messages.
To combat the snoops, scientists have developed a way of creating and sending codes that is ultra secure...
quantum cryptography.
quantum cryptography.
Quantum cryptography uses two particles of light for each part of the code. One particle goes to the person coding the message: the other particle goes to the person decoding the message. It is impossible to intercept either particle without being detected.
If the particle is captured and read then it won't turn up at its destination and the snoop is detected. The particles are impossible to copy and if the snoop makes a replacement particle, it won't match the other one in the pair. Again the snoop's cover is blown.
Image: Andreas Poppe
'A normal cryptography system uses a public and a private code. It would be tricky and take a long time, but in principle it could be cracked. Quantum cryptography is "unconditionally secure"; no one knows a way to crack it and so far it is impossible to break.'
Andreas Poppe, crypto expert, University of Vienna
Andreas Poppe, crypto expert, University of Vienna
Andreas Poppe, crypto expert, University of Vienna
Image: Andreas Poppe
An Austrian team are the first to put quantum cryptography into practice. They sent a quantum secured code from the City Hall to a bank via cables in the sewers of Vienna. The code was then used to encrypt a wire transfer of 3000 Euros from one bank account to another.