Improving Internet encryption.Researchers at Harvard University Harvard University, mainly at Cambridge, Mass., including Harvard College, the oldest American college. Harvard College Harvard College, originally for men, was founded in 1636 with a grant from the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. , Boston University Boston University, at Boston, Mass.; coeducational; founded 1839, chartered 1869, first baccalaureate granted 1871. It is composed of 16 schools and colleges. , and BBN Technologies (company) BBN Technologies - A company, originally known as Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN), based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. BBN were awarded the original contract to build the ARPANET and have been extensively involved in Internet development. reportedly have discovered a technology to make computer networks so secure that even the simplest attempts to eavesdrop eaves·drop intr.v. eaves·dropped, eaves·drop·ping, eaves·drops To listen secretly to the private conversation of others. will interrupt the flow of data and alert administrators. According to Associated Press, the work is the closest scientists have come to a real-world quantum encryption system that uses light particles called photons to lock and unlock information instead of random-number "keys." Quantum cryptography depends on a defining discovery in physics: that subatomic particles can exist in multiple states at once until something interacts with them. Thus, even observing photons used in quantum encryption changes them, ruining the codes. The technology is rooted in a system used by World War II spies involving identical pads of random numbers, each page having a different key for encoding and decoding messages. A code could be unscrambled only if the recipient had the same page as the sender. Similarly, on the quantum network, a laser separates individual photons and sends them to a modulator Modulator Any device or circuit by means of which a desired signal is impressed upon a higher-frequency periodic wave known as a carrier. The process is called modulation. The modulator may vary the amplitude, frequency, or phase of the carrier. device, which pumps them out to other network nodes on fiber-optic cable. The photons are encoded by sending them out at different intervals: a long gap indicates one bit of information, and a shorter one a different bit. On the receiving end, another device accepts the photons and recognizes how they're modulated. If the sequence matches what was originally sent, then the keys are stored and used to unscramble Same as decrypt. See scramble. data sent through conventional means between the different network nodes, such as over the Internet. Eavesdropping Secretly gaining unauthorized access to confidential communications. Examples include listening to radio transmissions or using laser interferometers to reconstitute conversations by reflecting laser beams off windows that are vibrating in synchrony to the sound in the room. on the photons, such as setting up a photo detector to read the code, disrupts them, making the codes unusable and alerting the network to the snooper. Scientists can use the technology to swap data, send e-mail, and visit one another's Web sites because their data is protected. Researchers are still exploring the technology's practical applications, but some say it could one day replace the encryption now used for most secure Internet traffic and protect financial and government communications. |
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