China to launch hack-proof quantum communication network in 2016

[BeyondGeography]

Source: South China Morning Post

China will complete and put into service the world's longest quantum communication network stretching 2,000km from Beijing to Shanghai by 2016, say scientists leading the project. The quantum network is considered "unhackable" and will provide the most secure encryption technology to users.

...A quantum communication network is, in theory, unbreakable. Any attempt to intercept the encryption key would alter the physical status of the quantum data, or qubits, and trigger an alert to the communicators. Though the technology was proposed by IBM scientists as early as the 1980s, quantum communication has been limited to short distances due to the technological difficulty in maintaining the qubit's fragile quantum state, such as spin, over a long distance.

China was in a race with other countries to develop the technology and, thanks to generous funding, scientists achieved numerous significant breakthroughs in recent years. Pan's team conducted the world's first experiment on quantum key distribution from a satellite last year. Governments in Europe, Japan and Canada are about to launch their own quantum communication satellite projects and a private company in the US has been seeking funding from the federal government with a proposal for a 10,000km network linking major cities.


Read more: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1631479/china-launch-hack-proof-quantum-communication-network-2016

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While Republicans play with their Invisible Hand the rest of the developed world moves forward.

[RKP5637]

1. And leaving the US in the dust. I guess it just feels great to the republicans to have the US

be the laggard. The world is changing and the US isn't keeping up, many thinking it's still post WWII times with all competition for the most part gone. US reminds me often of huge corps. I've worked for that disappeared when competition came along, and they were stuck in their old ways.

[Downwinder]

2. By 2030, the Chinese network would be extended worldwide, Xinhua reported.

Probably the only way we will get a secure high speed internet.

I'll be in my nineties, won't need high speed.

[NobodyHere]

3. Sounds good on paper

But theory isn't always reality.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/418968/commercial-quantum-cryptography-system-hacked/

[bemildred]

4. I think they are being somewhat optimistic, but we will see.

This seems to be only about secure key distribution, which is a good thing if they can do it, key distribution is a big headache, and it didn't sound exactly infeasible, what they are doing, but there is always social engineering even if it does work. Most financially motivated hacking is stolen password hacking, not direct decryption.

[SoapBox]

5. And America stares blankly at a wall...

We are a mess.

[heaven05]

6. the RW leadership

has run us into that wall. Still cleaning up the accident 14 years later. Many casualties.