[extropy-chat] Encryption revolution

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

>From 2theadvocate.com: After 20 years of research, an encryption process is
emerging that is considered unbreakable because it employs the mind-blowing
laws of quantum physics. In November, a small startup called MagiQ
Technologies Inc. began selling what appears to be the first commercially
available system that uses individual photons to transfer the numeric keys
that are widely used to encode and read secret documents.
MagiQ (pronounced "magic," with the "Q" for "quantum") expects this will
appeal to banks, insurers, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies and
other organizations that transmit sensitive information. "We think this is
going to have a huge, positive impact on the world," said Bob Gelfond,
MagiQ's founder and chief executive. Encryption schemes commonly used now
are considered safe, though they theoretically could be broken someday. But
even before that day arrives, Gelfond believes quantum encryption is
superior in one important way. In some super-high-security settings, people
sharing passwords and other information must have the same key, a massive
string of digits used to encode data. Sometimes the keys will be transferred
by imperfect means -- via courier or special software. They are not changed
very often and can be susceptible to interception.
Quantum encryption employs one of the defining discoveries of physics:
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which says subatomic particles exist in
multiple possible states at once, however hard as that may be to imagine,
until something interacts with them.
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