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Tech Guys: Diamonds create 'unhackable' code

Night StalkerNight Stalker Member Posts: 11,967
edited April 2005 in General Discussion
Diamonds create 'unhackable' code
By Kate Lahey
April 29, 2005

DIAMONDS have long been a girl's best friend, but they could also become the
sworn enemy of spies and hackers.

Researchers at Melbourne University are growing diamond particles on optical
fibres to transmit information they say will be impossible to hack.
The diamonds, just 1/1000 of a millimetre in size, send information through
a single photon of light instead of the billions of photons found in an
ordinary light beam.

Research fellow James Rabeau compares the technology to flicking a torch to
send a message to a friend across a room.

Light from the torch can be seen by others in the room, because there are
billions of photons, and the message can be de-coded.

But if the light was a single photon beam, others in the room could not see
it, and the two friends would also know instantly if it had been
intercepted.

"If it's intercepted, no useable information is gleaned," Dr Rabeau said.

At the moment, when information is sent electronically, such as credit card
details, it is encrypted and then decoded at the other end, but the
information can be stolen along the way.

"They're stealing a coded message and then if they have very powerful
computers they can start to try to crack the code," he said.

"Computers are getting faster and faster so codes have to get better.

"But our technique exploits quantum mechanics. This allows you to
communicate in total secrecy, with unhackable codes."

The quantum cryptography project has been given $3.3 million by the
Victorian Government to allow researchers to develop a prototype and make it
commercially available.

Dr Rabeau said two companies were already selling a similar system for about
$80,000, that simply "turned down" the light.

"They don't reliably produce single particles of light," he said.

"It's pretty secure, but it's still not absolutely secure."

The diamond particles are produced in a 1500 watt microwave reactor, using
gases containing carbon to grow tiny crystals of diamond over the tip of the
optic fibre, which itself is only the size of a hair.

Dr Rabeau said the technology did have limitations and slowed down the speed
at which a message was sent, at this stage to about 120km/h.

Nevertheless, demand was expected to be high, he said.

"There are huge military and national security implications if we can do
this," Dr Rabeau said.

"I think there's a lot of potential for spin-off technologies, this is a
very unique device."

Link: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15123388-29277,00.html

NSDQ!
www.nightstalkers.com

NS_Crest.jpgr6team.gifAmerican_IR_Flag.jpg

"The Lord knows the way I take, and when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold" JOB 23:10

Comments

  • MRBEANMRBEAN Member Posts: 562 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Great another thing for the gov't to waste my tax money on and dig deeper into the nat'l deficit! BTW, how can they do that when it takes a vehicle, steady job, etc just to buy a friggin house? Sorry[V]

    bean.gifTo the rich, everything is a neccessity. To the poor, everything is a luxury
  • BlckhrnBlckhrn Member Posts: 5,136
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by MRBEAN
    Great another thing for the gov't to waste my tax money on and dig deeper into the nat'l deficit! BTW, how can they do that when it takes a vehicle, steady job, etc just to buy a friggin house? Sorry[V]

    bean.gifTo the rich, everything is a neccessity. To the poor, everything is a luxury


    Pay your taxes to Australia?

    york.bmp"No taxation without representation, Join the NRA"
  • MRBEANMRBEAN Member Posts: 562 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Blkhrn, not sure what you mean. Are you trying to tell me that some country has a bigger deficit than the U.S?

    bean.gifTo the rich, everything is a neccessity. To the poor, everything is a luxury
  • BlckhrnBlckhrn Member Posts: 5,136
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by MRBEAN
    Blkhrn, not sure what you mean. Are you trying to tell me that some country has a bigger deficit than the U.S?

    [IMG]http://.com/albums/v666/WHITEPELE/bean.gif[/IMG]To the rich, everything is a neccessity. To the poor, everything is a luxury


    I'm trying to tell you that the research is going on in Australia

    york.bmp"No taxation without representation, Join the NRA"
  • Night StalkerNight Stalker Member Posts: 11,967
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by MRBEAN
    Great another thing for the gov't to waste my tax money on and dig deeper into the nat'l deficit! BTW, how can they do that when it takes a vehicle, steady job, etc just to buy a friggin house? Sorry[V]
    How much do you think this technology is worth if it is both out there, and provides a secure means of transmitting sensitive information? Isn't that enough to make it worth the few extra dollars which would be added to the National deficit?

    NSDQ!
    www.nightstalkers.com

    NS_Crest.jpgr6team.gifAmerican_IR_Flag.jpg

    "The Lord knows the way I take, and when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold" JOB 23:10
  • MRBEANMRBEAN Member Posts: 562 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    A few dollars my *! Both of you seem naive on the subject. Yes, Austrailia is who the research is about, but you can be damn sure the U.S is hot on their trail, if not ahead. That's perhaps the biggest problem with our gov't. We spend most, if not all, of the R&D money then sell the final product to whoever wants a bargain. Don't believe me, do a little research of your own about developement of aircraft(who funded it and who paid what for the goods).[;)]

    bean.gifTo the rich, everything is a neccessity. To the poor, everything is a luxury
  • BlckhrnBlckhrn Member Posts: 5,136
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by MRBEAN
    A few dollars my *! Both of you seem naive on the subject. Yes, Austrailia is who the research is about, but you can be damn sure the U.S is hot on their trail, if not ahead. That's perhaps the biggest problem with our gov't. We spend most, if not all, of the R&D money then sell the final product to whoever wants a bargain. Don't believe me, do a little research of your own about developement of aircraft(who funded it and who paid what for the goods).[;)]

    bean.gifTo the rich, everything is a neccessity. To the poor, everything is a luxury


    Did you take your aluminum foil hat off again?

    york.bmp"No taxation without representation, Join the NRA"
  • Night StalkerNight Stalker Member Posts: 11,967
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Blckhrn
    quote:Originally posted by MRBEAN
    A few dollars my *! Both of you seem naive on the subject. Yes, Austrailia is who the research is about, but you can be damn sure the U.S is hot on their trail, if not ahead. That's perhaps the biggest problem with our gov't. We spend most, if not all, of the R&D money then sell the final product to whoever wants a bargain. Don't believe me, do a little research of your own about developement of aircraft(who funded it and who paid what for the goods).[;)]

    bean.gifTo the rich, everything is a neccessity. To the poor, everything is a luxury


    Did you take your aluminum foil hat off again? [:D] [8D] [}:)] [;)] [:0] [V] It must be a sad world in which he lives blackhorn, a truly sad and desperate world filled with conspiracy and inuendo.

    NSDQ!
    www.nightstalkers.com

    NS_Crest.jpgr6team.gifAmerican_IR_Flag.jpg

    "The Lord knows the way I take, and when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold" JOB 23:10
  • BlckhrnBlckhrn Member Posts: 5,136
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Night Stalker
    quote:Originally posted by Blckhrn
    quote:Originally posted by MRBEAN
    A few dollars my *! Both of you seem naive on the subject. Yes, Austrailia is who the research is about, but you can be damn sure the U.S is hot on their trail, if not ahead. That's perhaps the biggest problem with our gov't. We spend most, if not all, of the R&D money then sell the final product to whoever wants a bargain. Don't believe me, do a little research of your own about developement of aircraft(who funded it and who paid what for the goods).[;)]

    bean.gifTo the rich, everything is a neccessity. To the poor, everything is a luxury


    Did you take your aluminum foil hat off again? [:D] [8D] [}:)] [;)] [:0] [V] It must be a sad world in which he lives blackhorn, a truly sad and desperate world filled with conspiracy and inuendo.

    NSDQ!
    www.nightstalkers.com

    NS_Crest.jpgr6team.gifAmerican_IR_Flag.jpg

    "The Lord knows the way I take, and when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold" JOB 23:10


    I will say this, he has a very well suited avatar.

    york.bmp"No taxation without representation, Join the NRA"
  • MRBEANMRBEAN Member Posts: 562 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Yes, thank laidbackdan for the "posing" bean. No I don't wear those foil things. Everyone knows that reflective tape over kevlar works better, duh![8D][;)]

    bean.gifTo the rich, everything is a neccessity. To the poor, everything is a luxury
  • BlckhrnBlckhrn Member Posts: 5,136
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by MRBEAN
    A few dollars my *! Both of you seem naive on the subject. Yes, Austrailia is who the research is about, but you can be damn sure the U.S is hot on their trail, if not ahead. That's perhaps the biggest problem with our gov't. We spend most, if not all, of the R&D money then sell the final product to whoever wants a bargain. Don't believe me, do a little research of your own about developement of aircraft(who funded it and who paid what for the goods).[;)]

    [IMG]http://.com/albums/v666/WHITEPELE/bean.gif[/IMG]To the rich, everything is a neccessity. To the poor, everything is a luxury


    I'm thinking you're the naive one if you're suggesting that keeping up with technology is where tax dollars are wasted.

    Before FDR there was no income tax. When first enacted taxpayers only payed some $1 a year and only if they made over $4,000. That has changed greatly in 7 decades, as you do seem aware.

    Ever hear of the "Peter Principle?" Look it up, it is a big factor in where your money is going. Pork barrel politics insure that your money goes somewhere it isn't needed. Let's not forget, either, hordes of Gov't employees sitting around collecting dust on committees appointed to tasks as important as overseeing the production of buggy whip sockets and the like. Certainly not last is your legislator who goes to work three days a year and then only to vote for his own salary increase.

    A friend of mine suggested once that a third of the census is working and paying taxes, a third is spending those funds and a third is collecting much of them for doing nothing. A little simplistic and extreme but some truth there. This is the mentality of waste. Giving the government money and the authority to spend it is like giving a 6 year old a blank check and letting go for a weekend at Toys'r'us

    york.bmp"No taxation without representation, Join the NRA"
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