ENSCHEDE, Netherlands—EMV brings greater card security over mag-stripe, but chip and PIN can still be compromised. Now Dutch researchers say quantum cryptography can make plastic unhackable.
Quantum cryptography leverages properties of subatomic particles to keep fraudsters at bay. According to PC Magazine, the technology is getting closer to a practical reality.
In the current issue of Optica, scientists at the University of Twente and Eindhoven University of Technology describe what they call quantum-secure authentication (QSA) of a "classical multiple-scattering key." To decipher and authenticate the key, the Dutch team illuminated it with "a light pulse containing fewer photons than spatial degrees of freedom, verifying the spatial shape of the reflected light."
Cyber criminals could not crack the encrypted data even if all information about the key is publicly known, because the principles of quantum physics prevent the optical response to the key from being emulated, PC Magazine reported, noting QSA leverages the properties of quantum mechanics to create a perfectly secure encryption system.
Pepijn Pinkse of the University of Twente, in less complex terms, explained how QSA works, saying, "It would be like dropping 10 bowling balls onto the ground and creating 200 separate impacts. It's impossible to know precisely what information was sent (what pattern was created on the floor) just by collecting the 10 bowling balls."
The scientist added that QSA would be "straightforward” to implement with current technology.
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