[145782] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Lasers crack commercial encryption systems
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (mheyman@gmail.com)
Mon Aug 30 13:51:38 2010
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:02:53 -0400
From: "mheyman@gmail.com" <mheyman@gmail.com>
To: Cryptography <cryptography@metzdowd.com>
From: <http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100829/full/news.2010.436.html>
Quantum hackers have performed the first 'invisible' attack on two comme=
rcial
quantum cryptographic systems...they have fully cracked their
encryption keys,
yet left no trace of the hack..."Our hack gave 100% knowledge of
the key, with
zero disturbance to the system," he says...In Makarov and colleagues' ha=
ck,
Eve [blinds] Bob's detector =97 shining a continuous, 1-milliwatt
laser at it. While
Bob's detector is thus disabled, Eve can then intercept Alice's signal..=
.The
cunning part is that while blinded, Bob's detector cannot function
as a 'quantum
detector' that distinguishes between different quantum states of
incoming light.
However, it does still work as a 'classical detector' =97 recording a
bit value of 1
if it is hit by an additional bright light pulse, regardless of the
quantum properties
of that pulse.
----
Michael HEyman
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