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Aussie Scientists Create Unbreakable Diamond Code
New Zealand Herald ^ | 5/4/05

Posted on 05/03/2005 1:26:18 PM PDT by marshmallow

SYDNEY - Australian scientists believe they have developed an unbreakable information code to stop hackers, using a diamond, a kitchen microwave oven and an optical fibre.

Researchers at Melbourne University used the microwave to "fuse" a tiny diamond, just 1/1000th of a millimetre, onto an optical fibre, which could be used to create a single photon beam of light which they say cannot be hacked.

Photons are the smallest known particles of light. Until now, scientists could not produce a single-photon beam, thereby narrowing down the stream of light used to transmit information.

"When it comes to cryptology, it's not so much of a problem to have a coded message intercepted, the problem is getting the key (to decode it)," said university research fellow James Rabeau, who developed the diamond device.

"The single-photon beam makes for an unstealable key."

The security of information depends on the properties of light that is used to transmit data.

Laser beams which are used at the moment send billions of photons, making it easy for hackers to steal some of them and break the code, said Rabeau.

The diamond device sends a stream of single photons, so that if the chain of communication is broken, the information becomes corrupted and a hacker immediately exposed to both the sender and the receiver, he said.

Only diamonds are known to create single-photon beams.

Rabeau and his team have received a $US2.5 million ($NZ3.46 million) innovation grant from the Victoria state government to develop a prototype and commercialise the technology.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: computersecurity; privacy
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1 posted on 05/03/2005 1:26:19 PM PDT by marshmallow
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Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: marshmallow
*Kids, don't put your Mom's diamond ring in the microwave to see if you can make a diamond thread.

Oh what the heck, try it anyway.

3 posted on 05/03/2005 1:30:28 PM PDT by Deaf Smith
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To: marshmallow
Kind of a SchrÖdinger's cat thing, I guess. Once you look at it it changes. Darned if I can see the practical application, though.

Oh, well, another round of Foster's, mate!
4 posted on 05/03/2005 1:30:54 PM PDT by Fido969 (God? I'm not quite sure of what God is. I know what God isn't. God isn't me.)
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To: marshmallow

Anything that can be produced once can be produced a second time.

Having said that, if I have to buy diamonds and some sort of a proton beam receiver just so I can bank online, well, I'll just walk down to the branch.


5 posted on 05/03/2005 1:32:23 PM PDT by AbeKrieger
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To: marshmallow

Pimple faced nerds the World over will have yet another reason go go dateless as they spend a few nights figuring out a quick hack.


6 posted on 05/03/2005 1:32:48 PM PDT by MarineBrat (Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They need changing often, and for the same reason!)
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To: MarineBrat

go go = to go


7 posted on 05/03/2005 1:33:34 PM PDT by MarineBrat (Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They need changing often, and for the same reason!)
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To: marshmallow

[sigh]
I simply hate to see this kind of hyperbole. What the author should have said was not that the encryption is "unbreakable" but rather should have stated that any interception of the stream was detectable. In essence, the end points would know when someone is listening.

However, this only addresses the interception component of a transmission and only that portion of the transmission via fiber optic cable. There are a WHOLE bunch of other interception points between the end points.


8 posted on 05/03/2005 1:34:15 PM PDT by taxcontrol (People are entitled to their opinion - no matter how wrong it is.)
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To: marshmallow

'Unbreakable', eh?

Could we call the code Titanic?


9 posted on 05/03/2005 1:34:43 PM PDT by Constitution Day
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To: marshmallow
This guy already did it with some chewing gum and a pencil.


10 posted on 05/03/2005 1:35:36 PM PDT by RushCrush (Hey hey! ho ho! Kerry! sign that one-eight-oh!)
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To: jasoncann
I always find it very funny when "they" say this "which they say cannot be hacked"

This 'cannot be hacked is based on the 'Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal'.

It is physically (as in violating a law of physics) impossible to interfere with a single beam of photons without changing it and thus alerting the people at each end that you have intercepted it. They can then stop transmitting.

So9

11 posted on 05/03/2005 1:36:05 PM PDT by Servant of the 9 (Trust Me)
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To: MarineBrat

Or pimple-faced nerds might be able to finally provide a single, secure cryptography stream for the Marines to unify their communications rat's nest.


12 posted on 05/03/2005 1:36:51 PM PDT by monkeybrau
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To: marshmallow
The diamond device sends a stream of single photons, so that if the chain of communication is broken, the information becomes corrupted and a hacker immediately exposed to both the sender and the receiver, he said.

Um...nothing described in this article is an "unbreakable code".

What they are actually discussing is an non-interceptable transmission system.

13 posted on 05/03/2005 1:37:26 PM PDT by Psycho_Bunny (“I know a great deal about the Middle East because I’ve been raising Arabian horses" Patrick Swazey)
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To: AbeKrieger

It couldn't be reproduced if each individual diamond carries a signature of some sort. In other words, the reciever would know the information stream was coming from some source other than the original source.

The article doesn't specify if this is the case, however.


14 posted on 05/03/2005 1:38:25 PM PDT by linear (You men can't fight in here - this is the War Room!)
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To: Servant of the 9
What you just described was interception, not encryption. Not the same thing. Yes an interception would be detectable but even if the end points continued to transmit, the stream would still be protected by the encryption which is an entirely different function.
15 posted on 05/03/2005 1:39:22 PM PDT by taxcontrol (People are entitled to their opinion - no matter how wrong it is.)
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To: marshmallow

And how are they going to deal with the light absorbtion in the optical fiber line? While small, it is non-zero. When you have a multiphoton stream, you could lose some, and still be left with something useable. But if you have a single photon and it gets absorbed somewhere along the way... they need an absolutely lossless line.


16 posted on 05/03/2005 1:39:58 PM PDT by GSlob
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To: marshmallow
Interesting development. There may not be a need to steal anything if someone other than the intended recipient gets the key to decode.

My encryption algorithm will be better than this.


17 posted on 05/03/2005 1:40:44 PM PDT by rdb3 (To the world, you're one person. To one person, you may be the world.)
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To: Servant of the 9

so its hackable, just not undetecably hackable.


18 posted on 05/03/2005 1:41:30 PM PDT by RolandBurnam (I WANT SOME PORK RINDS!!!!!)
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To: marshmallow
"I betcha they couldn't build a golf cart or a telephone out of bamboo sticks like I could"


19 posted on 05/03/2005 1:41:39 PM PDT by ChuckShick (He's clerking for me...)
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To: RushCrush

My thoughts exactly.


20 posted on 05/03/2005 1:42:08 PM PDT by Finger Monkey (H.R. 25, Fair Tax Act - A consumption tax which replaces the income tax, SS tax, death tax, etc.)
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