Encryption Promises Unbreakable Codes

AP ^ | Nov. 16, 2003 | BRIAN BERGSTEIN

[Cultural Jihad]

Encryption Promises Unbreakable Codes
BRIAN BERGSTEIN
Associated Press

NEW YORK - Code-makers could be on the verge of winning their ancient arms race with code-breakers.

After 20 years of research, an encryption process is emerging that is considered unbreakable because it employs the mind-blowing laws of quantum physics.

This month, a small startup called MagiQ Technologies Inc. began selling what appears to be the first commercially available system that uses individual photons to transfer the numeric keys that are widely used to encode and read secret documents.

Photons, discrete particles of energy, are so sensitive that if anyone tries to spy on their travel from one point to another, their behavior will change, tipping off the sender and recipient and invalidating the stolen code.

"There are really no ways (of) cracking this code," said Lov Grover, a quantum computing researcher at Bell Laboratories who is not involved with MagiQ.

Called Navajo - a nod to the American Indian code specialists of World War II - MagiQ's system consists of 19-inch black boxes that generate and read the signals over a fiber-optic line.

MagiQ (pronounced "magic," with the "Q" for "quantum") expects that with a cost of $50,000 to $100,000, Navajo will appeal to banks, insurers, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies and other organizations that transmit sensitive information.

"We think this is going to have a huge, positive impact on the world," said Bob Gelfond, MagiQ's founder and chief executive.

Encryption schemes commonly used now are considered safe, though they theoretically could be broken someday.

But even before that day arrives, Gelfond believes quantum encryption is superior in one important way. In some super-high-security settings, people sharing passwords and other information must have the same key, a massive string of digits used to encode data. Sometimes the keys will be transferred by imperfect means - via courier or special software. They are not changed very often and can be susceptible to interception.

"Even if you have the perfect encryption algorithm, if someone gets your key, you're in trouble," Gelfond said.

The Navajo system not only transmits the keys on snoop-proof photons, it also changes them 10 times a second. "Even if somebody could get a copy of the key, it wouldn't do them any good," Gelfond said.

Of course, unbreakable codes would neutralize the ability of intelligence agents to intercept and read messages. That would necessitate greater reliance on human intelligence.

So does the world's foremost code-making and code-breaking organization, the U.S. National Security Agency, worry about the spread of quantum encryption? Better yet, is the NSA using the technology itself? Like most things about the NSA, those answers remain secret.

MagiQ is seeking the government's approval to sell Navajo boxes overseas. Gelfond hopes officials have realized - after trying and failing to restrict encryption exports in the 1990s - that there's little point in trying to "put the genie back in the bottle" once encryption methods have been invented. After all, he said, researchers in China are known to have experimented with quantum encryption.

[Prof Engineer]

ping

[LibWhacker]

In some super-high-security settings, people sharing passwords and other information must have the same key . . .

WRONG! The AP screws up again.

[Allan]

Ping

[per loin]

"There are really no ways (of) cracking this code," said Lov Grover, a quantum computing researcher at Bell Laboratories who is not involved with MagiQ.

Silently, the cracker smirks, and begins his work.

[RiflemanSharpe]

Any guesses on how long it will be before someone breaks these codes. If you build a better mouse trap the world builds a better mouse. All codes are breakable.

[don'tbedenied]

Not Enigma!

Herman Goering

[glorgau]

They won't be broken until new laws of the physical universe are discovered. Quantum mechanics has been verified to exacting detail.

[taxcontrol]

The weakest point of any, and I do mean ANY encryption scheme is the humans at each end.

Enigma was broken because the transmission format used by the Germans had each station use their 3 digit call sign to start the message.

[whattajoke]

Sigh. The title should be:

"Cracker and Hackers Rejoice, something new to figure out! first one wins a prize!"

[jpl]

Any encryption key that is used more than once is breakable, without exception. It could take an extremely long time to get broken, but it is doable.

[epluribus_2]

uh - silently the NSA smirks because they know the backdoors to anything like this in case it becomes a Tool for Allah.

[r9etb]

Photons, discrete particles of energy, are so sensitive that if anyone tries to spy on their travel from one point to another, their behavior will change, tipping off the sender and recipient and invalidating the stolen code.

OK.... So basically they're claiming that if I put a splitter in the line, and hook up the alternate line to my stolen box, the photon will be altered and I can't read the message? Somehow I doubt it.

Also, any fiber-optic line losses would undoubtedly include the occasional encryption photon -- so clearly there's gonna have to be some sort of error detection/correction algorithm involved.

(sniff sniff) Is that marketing I smell....?

[harpseal]

I note that this seems to rely on the fact that any attempt to copy a message will destroy the message to the originally designated recipient. Thus the seemingly best strategy is to intercept and make to copies doing a retransmission to the original designated recipient.

[stainlessbanner]

Same public key, not private key.

[mtbopfuyn]

Man made it, man can crack it.

[yevgenie]

The theory follows the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Of course, adding relay points along the way can interrupt signals. Also, as any computer hacker can tell you, social engineering and compromising the box are methods that work quite well.
So what if you can't listen-in on the conversation. Attack the end point boxes and you should get plain-text copy. Also, exploit the fragility of the system by purposely messing with it so that it becomes "unreliable". If you can consistently or even inconsistently disrupt the "secure" channel, then the black boxes become unreliable and will need to be replaced.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[ASA Vet]

There have always been unbreakable codes, and 98C T9's to break them.

[ASA Vet]

There is No Such Agency.