304,452 research outputs found
The Case for Quantum Key Distribution
Quantum key distribution (QKD) promises secure key agreement by using quantum
mechanical systems. We argue that QKD will be an important part of future
cryptographic infrastructures. It can provide long-term confidentiality for
encrypted information without reliance on computational assumptions. Although
QKD still requires authentication to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, it can
make use of either information-theoretically secure symmetric key
authentication or computationally secure public key authentication: even when
using public key authentication, we argue that QKD still offers stronger
security than classical key agreement.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure; to appear in proceedings of QuantumComm 2009
Workshop on Quantum and Classical Information Security; version 2 minor
content revision
Quantum Cryptography using larger alphabets
Like all of quantum information theory, quantum cryptography is traditionally
based on two level quantum systems. In this letter, a new protocol for quantum
key distribution based on higher dimensional systems is presented. An
experimental realization using an interferometric setup is also proposed.
Analyzing this protocol from the practical side, one finds an increased key
creation rate while keeping the initial laser pulse rate constant. Analyzing it
for the case of intercept/resend eavesdropping strategy, an increased error
rate is found compared to two dimensional systems, hence an advantage for the
legitimate users to detect an eavesdropper.Comment: 12 pages, 2 (eps) figure
Quantum identification system
A secure quantum identification system combining a classical identification
procedure and quantum key distribution is proposed. Each identification
sequence is always used just once and new sequences are ``refuelled'' from a
shared provably secret key transferred through the quantum channel. Two
identification protocols are devised. The first protocol can be applied when
legitimate users have an unjammable public channel at their disposal. The
deception probability is derived for the case of a noisy quantum channel. The
second protocol employs unconditionally secure authentication of information
sent over the public channel, and thus it can be applied even in the case when
an adversary is allowed to modify public communications. An experimental
realization of a quantum identification system is described.Comment: RevTeX, 4 postscript figures, 9 pages, submitted to Physical Review
Reconciliation of a Quantum-Distributed Gaussian Key
Two parties, Alice and Bob, wish to distill a binary secret key out of a list
of correlated variables that they share after running a quantum key
distribution protocol based on continuous-spectrum quantum carriers. We present
a novel construction that allows the legitimate parties to get equal bit
strings out of correlated variables by using a classical channel, with as few
leaked information as possible. This opens the way to securely correcting
non-binary key elements. In particular, the construction is refined to the case
of Gaussian variables as it applies directly to recent continuous-variable
protocols for quantum key distribution.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to the IEEE for possible publication.
Revised version to improve its clarit
Finite key size analysis of two-way quantum cryptography
Quantum cryptographic protocols solve the longstanding problem of
distributing a shared secret string to two distant users by typically making
use of one-way quantum channel. However, alternative protocols exploiting
two-way quantum channel have been proposed for the same goal and with potential
advantages. Here we overview a security proof for two-way quantum key
distribution protocols, against the most general eavesdropping attack, that
utilize an entropic uncertainty relation. Then, by resorting to the `smooth'
version of involved entropies, we extend such a proof to the case of finite key
size. The results will be compared to those available for one-way protocols
showing some advantages
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