I’ve been reading up on security options for a financial services client of mine… and came across Quantum Key Distribution. Great stuff if you’re needing a secured point to point fiber optic network. The principle behind this stuff is that it uses quantum mechanics instead of the ‘mathematical difficulty’ normally associated with other classical cryptographic methods. Two devices (one on each side of the conversation) transfer photons as shared keys. One example of how QKD uses quantum mechanics is the idea that any quantum object that is observed (measured) changes, and so therefore we are able to detect when a photon ‘key’ is observed while in transit. Hack attempts can be detected (and prevented) in this manner because if the shared key is observed, the change makes it useless. This is important because using classical methods of cryptography, there is not really any way to determine if someone is ‘listening’, capturing packets for decryption. Another principle in use is ‘Quantum Entanglement’, which essentially ‘connects’ two quantum objects (in this case photons). This technology is currently in use, but primarily by governments and large corporations like banks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_cryptography
This is a company in New York that sells QKD devices:
http://www.magiqtech.com/MagiQ/Products.html
I’d love to play with a couple of them. 