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78 Comments
- adml_shake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10You wanna foil a hacker with light? Flip the switch on in the basement and blind him....then watch his body burn away like a vampires...
- solidcube, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7A photon of light? As opposed to a photon of literature or a photon of boredom?
- bitswapper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Silly professor - Digg is for kids!
- bluehouse, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2famous last words
- Parks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1- "to smash through the most sophisticated computer theft schemes that hackers can devise"
Ummm, keylogger (maybe), remote desktop, trojan, the list goes on. If you can get into the machine and plant a program it wont matter what kind of encryption you have. You will just have to have patience and wait for your victim to login and you will be able to access their data. - Outdoor83, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1-10 diggs for bad submission: it's awful and doesn't say what the article actually says...
... which is nothing all that useful. This, in theory, could stop sniffing keys in transit. That's all. Still vulnerable to a whole slew of other attacks, and this one is definitely not the most widely-used one in attacks (I'd venture to say it's the least, as libraries like OpenSSH already take care of incredibly-strong passwords). Asshat article. - gODfall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hmm this is supposed to be news? Anyways does he mean hacker or cracker?
- Turminator999, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1wouldn't reading the photons on the receiving end of the line change their quantum orientation rendering the protection useless? Maybe I am missing something here but it seems like Heisenberg's principle would hold up no matter what is reading the transmission.
- russel01, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I suppose he didn't take into consideration that this system could still be "hacked" with good old social engineering.
http://www.tenni-shoes.us/ - IppatsuMan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Did he discover BB84 key exchange protocol?
A good source about it:
http://www.aip.org/pt/vol-53/iss-11/p22.html
AFAIK the first functional key exchange based on photons was build in 1989.
Phew! A latest news! - CaptHarlock, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1EASY AS PI(e)....
I don't even have to see the photon to circumvent this crap.... All I have to do is "weigh" the wire..
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/light_mass.html
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/ParticleAndNuclear/photon_mass.html
This is like the schodinger cat except we don't care if the cat is live or dead we just have to know there is a cat in the box or not... - Agent_M, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Looked the guy up on RateMyProfessor. Aww...
http://ratemyprofessor.ca/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=321441 - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1he's using a photon keyboard too right or will a simple hardware keylogger get the password needed to bypass all encryption...
- snowbooch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1its gonna be open season on this guy
- slantysideways, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is just a poorly written article...
"As one of nature's smallest and strangest particles — one that, weirdly, can morph into a wave — a photon is subject to the laws of quantum physics that regulate the subatomic world."
That statement shows zero knowledge/research of quantum mechanics. Photons don't morph into anything. - dnaspydir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i don't believe any scientist that uses the word "never"
- phrosty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1quantum encryption is nothing new.. he's just calling the obvious his own. everyone interested in security already knew of this.
- crypto55, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is ridiculous. Only yesterday was there an article that was dugg that stated that Quantum Cryptography IS NOT COMPLETELY SECURE. The reason why scientists thought that QC was unbreakable was that trying to eavesdrop without the properly received codes was impossible, as it would change the incoming photons.
According to the article posted yesterday, this is not true. Quantum 'cloning' allows, in some sense, the photons to be read with accuracy. Also, the whole tense of the article posted today if ridiculous. It's not a question of 'hacking' the line. In order to access the QC fiber line, one has to have very precise equiptment HOOKED UP TO THE ORIGINAL access point. That is not feasible at this time, as a network is not in place. Either the author of the paper is an idiot with no knowledge of quantum cryptography, or the scientist is on dope and doesn't read scientific journals. - buddyfarr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I think that this is a great idea, but what is the point? It is already extremely hard (if not impossible?) to hack into a fiber optic cable."
not true. it is possible to bend the fiber cable just enough to emit the light and pick it up with a fiber "vampire tap". not sure if it is truely called this but I have heard of it. then you are basically listening to everything that is going thru the fiber. - count_z, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's a pretty badly written article, but that's not the Professors' fault (he didn't write the article). I think what they meant to say is that quantum encryption is *uncrackable* not unhackable... you don't have to crack the encryption to hack into a system, you just need to find an exploit that let's you circumvent it.
What's unclear is whether this is a specific implementation of quantum encryption or a new technique or if he developed actual hardware. - wabbit42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Erm.. hate to apply logic to this but if observing the photons will change their state (as the theory suggests) how do you read the key without destroying it?
Can anyone shed any light? - DigitAl56K, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0From the article:
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"One of the most entrenched theories governing this quantum universe is Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which states that merely looking at matter at this level will automatically change it.
"We can use this to confuse the eavesdropper, and severely limit what he can do," says Lo, a member of the school's Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control"
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From /. on Sunday:
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http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/20/0111231
"According to Physorg eavesdropping on a quantum encrypted link can now be done without detection. From the article: 'The scientists have succeeded in making the first remote copies of beams of laser light, by combining quantum cloning with quantum teleportation into a single experimental step. Telecloning is more efficient than any combination of teleportation and local cloning because it relies on a new form of quantum entanglement - multipartite entanglement.' There is also a PDF of a related paper available here for background material."
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Pwn3d. - en3r0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0hes right, untill the public gets quantum computing, or sooner
- nuxx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0bollocks, absolute bollocks.
Social Engineering, because there is no patch for human stupidity. - LiquidPenguin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Good God. Who the hell wrote this shoddy article? Hackers have enough tenacity to find the cure for cancer and AIDS (if it earned them respect from their peers). They really think that this is going to stop someone?
The only thing this "technology" is going to be used for is in some lame DMCA scheme in an effort to piss consumers off. - Brak710101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Nothing is uncrackable. Absoultely nothing.
How needs to view the photon when I can just infect point A and B? - btitus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What a poorly written article. "Smash through... theft schemes", "photon of light", "morph into a wave", "most entreched theories", "automatically change"?? just dreadful.
- turbopro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0LT WORF, ARM THE PHOTONS
- glitchbit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0only thing secure in this world is secrets of alien technology.
- PayneX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ridiculously over sensationalistic title, makes me think digg is for children.
- KiwiFireball, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is all well and good. It's not a surprise that this overly "intelligent" physics geek made such an outrageous claim. I suppose he didn't take into consideration that this system could still be "hacked" with good old social engineering.
- drdewm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I've never heard anyone say that the new protection scheme is uncrackable. Must be true this time
- Jibberish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think that this is a great idea, but what is the point? It is already extremely hard (if not impossible?) to hack into a fiber optic cable. Anything outside of the fiber optic cable is then in the electrical logic state, and thus immune from this new technique.
- p1nhead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Some fifteen year old comes along and defeats the technology every time a similar claim is made. Big deal.
- imtigger2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Sam Fisher could get in there. Cut the power, pop on some nightvision goggles, and hang to the ceiling... BAM!! in yo' FACE sucka!! Auxillary power to the computers... disc in, copy, disc out... boooya! ;)
- solo23, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0So this guy is an idiot.
He is setting himself to get hacked. - winkydo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0numatrix:
this is a good source for the wireless...
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7484 - megabytehl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This technology only makes itself more vulnerable by telling us where it's easiest to get around it. There is no firewall too high and no encryption too strong for a hacker to call in and ask for the VPN key because he lost his work laptop.
- numatrix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yoshi39 -- Because you and bob have worked out a shared secret he can use to properly decrypt it. A better explanation is this:
photons have different types of motion that can be detected with different types of detection. If you try the 'wrong' (say, horizontal vs. vertical) detection method for the type of motion, you'll actually effect the photon itself. Measuring is effecting. Bob can 1) detect impediments on the line because any act of measuring will effect the photons, but it doesn't really matter for himself -- if he uses the "wrong" detection, he just discards that bit and it's not used in the encryption key. Incidentally, quantum crypto isn't used for transmission of data, it's used for transmission of keys. Not too efficient otherwise.
Incidentally, to respond to the other poster about fiber optics -- there is wireless quantum crypto. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but it's supposed to be commercially available:
http://www.google.com/search?q=wireless+quantum+crypto - lamech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It doesnt foil hackers, only the evesdropping part. Anything that gets on the system, either via trojan or virus that they download, can wreak havoc. Or better yet, the hackers number 1 tool - social engineering. All it can do is stop people from reading transmissions sent between computers. Which has some real potential mind you - but will not really stop hackers that operate at that level anyways, only nooblets.
- Jams, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I rember reading a similar article over a year ago
- jmonw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"A photon of light? As opposed to a photon of literature or a photon of boredom?"
You're my hero for the day. :) - Barkie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I read about quantam crypography two years ago. Old *****. No digg.
- spartan777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0you guys really have no concept of quantum mechanics. just because you can spoof a simple photon, doesn't mean you can crack this system. this system, assuming no weak points, and that each terminal isn't compromised, IS PERFECT. if somebody intercepts a beam of photons 1 photon wide, no matter how well you spoof it, you will disrupt the flow, and alarms go off. since photons are going at the speed of light (they are light), you can't try to repeat the intercepted flow back, without a break in the signal. no matter how fast you can spoof, there will be a GAPING hole in the message, game over. you really need to know more about quantum mechanics than what some stories said in the news.
- winkydo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i wrote an article about this stuff. go check it out for tons of links and info.
http://winkydo.net/blog/?p=31 - spartan777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@metman: nice try, but the titanic and this are different. the titanic's greatness was riding on human engineering, this stuff is based on universal laws of nature.
@warhammerelf: fiber optic that's out there today couldn't do that, it would need VERY precise instrumentation to do this, so this isn't actually practical today, but physicists always talk about stuff 50 years away. - Anargeek77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Pure *****!!!! This is, was and always will be 'A CAT and MOUSE Chase". A system can always be hacked!
- n8agrin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0old news
quantum encryption has got to be over a decade old now. supposedly unbrakeable too.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385495323/sr=8-5/qid=1140716496/ref=pd_bbs_5/103-2956622-4860660?%5Fencoding=UTF8
was a fun read that explains quantum encryption. I'm not crytopgrapher, so maybe it's inacurate, but interesting none the less. - GRIMREAPER187, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0hackers if you pulse photon light along with your hacking accessing it will deflect any attempts to screw you over
"No matter how advanced machine kind may get. There will always be a human to hack it." - madjack3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0dugg for the comments more than the article! haha.
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