Eavesdropping Quantum Cryptography.

Publicated on : 1213651347
Yeah, that's no joke.



I didn't read about this anywhere so I thought it would be nice to bring it up here. It seems that Japanese scientists have developed a theoretical proposal to eavesdrop on parts of a key in quantum cryptography. Quantum cryptography is reckoned as the strongest method of creating a key to cipher data. The report gives a theoretical approach of eavesdropping with linear optics and a good dose of maths. This can have a huge impact, because even if you can obtain parts of a key it is possible to analyze it and use cryptanalysis to crack the whole key. I guess it's fair to say that it's probably doable for some people. They only have to translate the theory into practice.



Quantum cryptography is only used to produce and distribute a key, not to transmit any message data. This key can then be used with any chosen encryption algorithm to encrypt (and decrypt) a message, which can then be transmitted over a standard communication channel. The algorithm most commonly associated with QKD is the one-time pad, as it is provably secure when used with a secret, random key.



PDF with proposal: http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0806/0806.1778v1.pdf





Very interesting.