[pchelpers] Article:Quantum Cryptography Successfully Tested

By University of Toronto scientists
By: Vlad Tarko, Sci-Tech News Editor

Current encryption strategies are based on the assumed complexity of 
various mathematical problems computer can solve. A message is properly 
encrypted if a hacker would need a lot of time and resources to decrypt 
it. But as computers become more and more powerful the encrypted 
messages become easier to crack. Moreover, the mathematical problems 
cryptography is based upon sometimes prove to be less complex than 
previously thought.

Quantum cryptography is something completely different. It's not based on
assumed complexity of mathematical problems; it is based on physical 
principles - more specifically, on Heisenberg's incertitude principle. 
This principle states that when one measures some quantum property one, 
by necessity, influences some other quantum property. The quantum world 
is in such a way that there are no such things as completely independent 
properties.

The basic idea is that when a hacker tries to observe what you transmit 
to somebody else he/she will change the transmitted message. Therefore, 
if communication was based on this fundamental aspect of the quantum 
world no hacker could hack in without being detected.

More here:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Quantum-cryptography-successfully-tested-18588.shtml

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