Last week, Toshiba researchers unveiled a breakthrough in ultra-secure quantum cryptography, saying they had achieved a key distribution with a secure bit rate of more than one megabit per second over 50 km of fibre.
This is the first time this has been carried out and is sufficient to allow one-time pad encryption, which is considered to be the only perfectly-secure encryption method, to be performed on an everyday basis.
Commenting on the development, Dr Andrew Shields, assistant managing director responsible for quantum technology and nanotechnology at Toshiba, said within three to five years, quantum encryption could be ready for use in real applications.
'Quantum key distribution, the underlying technology, is unconditionally secure as a protocol, so that means, in theory, it's secure from every type of attack on the communication channel,' he explained.
However, the expert claimed recognised standards will need to be developed for the new system, to ensure that incorrect application does not lead to possible ways for it to be breached.
This is the first time this has been carried out and is sufficient to allow one-time pad encryption, which is considered to be the only perfectly-secure encryption method, to be performed on an everyday basis.
Commenting on the development, Dr Andrew Shields, assistant managing director responsible for quantum technology and nanotechnology at Toshiba, said within three to five years, quantum encryption could be ready for use in real applications.
'Quantum key distribution, the underlying technology, is unconditionally secure as a protocol, so that means, in theory, it's secure from every type of attack on the communication channel,' he explained.
However, the expert claimed recognised standards will need to be developed for the new system, to ensure that incorrect application does not lead to possible ways for it to be breached.
