{"id":637,"date":"2008-09-23T00:19:41","date_gmt":"2008-09-23T05:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/?p=637"},"modified":"2008-09-23T00:19:45","modified_gmt":"2008-09-23T05:19:45","slug":"loophole-found-in-quantum-cryptography-photon-detectors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/?p=637","title":{"rendered":"Loophole found in quantum cryptography photon detectors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/quantum-cryptoflaw.jpg\" title=\"quantum-cryptoflaw.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/quantum-cryptoflaw.thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"quantum-cryptoflaw.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re hoping to secure your data using quantum cryptography, you might want to find a shoulder to cry on.<\/p>\n<p>Quantum cryptography ought to be 100 percent secure. In theory , it provides perfect security against eavesdroppers. But in practice, a number of loopholes have emerged (see <a href=\"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/?p=4\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/?p=469\">here<\/a>). And today, Vadim Makarov and pals at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology reveal another.<\/p>\n<p>One crucial piece of kit that every quantum cryptographer needs is a detector capable of spotting single photons. And the detector of choice in about half of quantum cryptography experiments is the  Perkin Elmer SPCM-AQR detector module. &#8220;Until recently, this has been the only commercially available Si single photon detector model,&#8221; say Makarov and buddies.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, it turns out to have a significant flaw. The Norwegian team says that bombarding the machine with bright optical pulses can override the control circuitry in a way that allows an eavesdropper to control its output. That gives Eve a way of staging a successful intercept attack.<\/p>\n<p>I know what you&#8217;re thinking: why not switch to the gear used in the other half of quantum crypto experiments? The answer is that Makarov and pals have already shown that these devices have a vulnerability.<\/p>\n<p>All is not lost, however.  Now that the vulnerability has been revealed it should be straightforward to implement extra security to foil such an attack.<\/p>\n<p>But the implications are clear. The eternal cat and mouse game between eavesdroppers and their victims looks set to continue. Which means that quantum cryptography may never be perfect.<\/p>\n<p>Ref: <a href=\"http:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/0809.3408\">arxiv.org\/abs\/0809.3408<\/a>: Can Eve control PerkinElmer actively-quenched single-photon detector?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re hoping to secure your data using quantum cryptography, you might want to find a shoulder to cry on. Quantum cryptography ought to be 100 percent secure. In theory , it provides perfect security against eavesdroppers. But in practice, a number of loopholes have emerged (see here and here). And today, Vadim Makarov and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fightin","category-hellraisin","category-weird-n-spooky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}