The QKD method has also been broken: A group of Swedish scientists have discovered a way to break quantum cryptography, a new, advanced concept for data encryption using a law of physics.
Quantum cryptography was mentioned in 1970 as one advanced cryptography model based on photon movements to transmit data securely.
For many years, theorists have argued that the method is "ruthless", and will not allow others to track traffic encrypted by the quantum key distribution (QKD) method.
Some companies even started to develop QKD applications that could be commercially available. But to date, they have only been used in test environments.
According to researchers from Linköping University and Stockholm University, there is a gap in quantum encryption. The way the device-based power-engagement parameters work, puts QKD at risk.
“With this security gap, it is possible to track in motion without being detected. "We discovered the security gap with our theoretical calculations, and our colleagues in Stockholm were able to prove it experimentally," says one of the researchers, in the scientific journal EurekAlert.
In quantum cryptography, both parties send a photon at exactly the same time, but there is also a slight phase shift on each side. If there is someone who wants to eavesdrop, it creates noise in the communication channel, and the phase shift is smaller. If there is no danger, the photons use the same phase shift as if key encryption.
In their tests, researchers found that the integrity of the data can only be ensured if both parties communicate with each other using photons rather than traditional light sources.
The scientists published their findings in great detail online, in the free ScienceMag portal, along with two mitigation techniques that can be used to prevent data corruption.
