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By converting data into unclouded particles and beaming them around the world using satellite , we could forestall encrypted messages from being intercepted by a superpowerful quantum computer , scientists take .
presently , messaging technology relies on numerical , orcryptographic , methods of shelter , including end - to - end encryption . This technology is used in WhatsApp — as well as by bay window , the government and the military — to protect sensitive data from being tap .
Fearing that quantum computers will render encryption obsolete someday, scientists are proposing new technologies to protect sensitive communications.
Encryption works by clamber datum or text edition into what seems to be nonsense , using an algorithm and a key that only the transmitter and recipient can utilize to unlock the data . These algorithmic rule can , in theory , be crack . But they are design to be so complex that even the dissolute supercomputer would take million of age to translate the information into something readable .
Quantum computerschange the equation . Although the field is young , scientist predict that such machines will be powerful enough to easy part encryption algorithmic program someday . This is because they can process exponentially greater figuring in parallel ( calculate on how many qubits they use ) , whereas authoritative computers can sue deliberation only in succession .
fear that quantum computers will return encryption obsolete someday , scientist are proposing new technologies to protect sensitive communications . One field , fuck as " quantum cryptography , " call for building systems that can protect information from encoding - beating quantum computers .
Unlike Greco-Roman cryptography , which trust on algorithms to scramble data and keep it safe , quantum cryptanalytics would be secure thanks to the weird crotchet ofquantum machinist , according toIBM .
For example , in a paper published Jan. 21 in the journal Advanced Quantum Technologies , scientist identify a mission called " Quick3 , " which usesphotons — particles of lightness — to transmit data through a massive satellite web .
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" Security will be establish on the information being encoded into case-by-case light particles and then transmitted,“Tobias Vogl , prof of quantum communication systems engineering at TUM and co - author of the newspaper , said in astatement . " The jurisprudence of physic do not permit this information to be extracted or copied . "
That ’s because the very act of measure out a quantum system changes its state .
" When the information is intercepted , the light particle change their characteristics , " he added . " Because we can assess these country variety , any endeavor to tap the beam datum will be realize like a shot , no matter of succeeding advances in technology . "
The challenge with traditional Earth - base quantum cryptography , however , lies in transmit data over foresightful distances , with a maximum mountain chain of just a few hundred sea mile , the TUM scientists articulate in the financial statement . This is because luminance tends to scatter as it move around , and there ’s no wanton way to imitate or magnify these light signal through roughage ocular cables .
Scientists have also experimented with lay in encryption keys in entangled atom — meaning the information is intrinsically shared between two particles over place and time no matter how far asunder . Aproject in 2020 , for example , demonstrated " quantum key dispersion " ( QKD ) between two ground stations 700 Swedish mile apart ( 1,120 kilometer ) .
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When it come to transmitting photons , however , at altitudes higher than 6 mile ( 10 kilometre ) , the atmosphere is so slender that light is not scattered or absorbed , so signal can be broaden over long distances .
The Quick3 system would involve the entire scheme for transmit data in this path , including the component needed to build the satellites . The team has already tested each component on Earth . The next whole tone will be to try out the organisation in outer space , with a orbiter launch scheduled for 2025 .
They will probably postulate century , or perhaps even thousands , of satellites for a fully working quantum communication organization , the team order .
