Chinese researchers to send an 'uncrackable' quantum message to space

[Judi Lynn]

By Rafi Letzter - Staff Writer 10 hours ago

Next stop: outer space.

Uncrackable quantum messages can now be sent through the air and will soon be beamed into space.

Researchers at the University of Science and Technology in China (USTC) worked out in 2018 how to secretly share "quantum keys" between orbiting satellites and ground stations, as Live Science previously reported. That made the connection between the Chinese Micius satellite and three ground sites it communicates with in Europe and Asia by far the largest secure quantum network in the world. But the quantum secrecy tool Micius originally used had a few leaks, requiring scientists to develop a more advanced form of quantum encryption known as measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD). Now, those same researchers have, for the first time, pulled off MDI-QKD wirelessly, across a city in China, without any fiber optics involved. And they're getting ready to send MDI-QKD up to Micius.

"The results by the Chinese group [are] very interesting for the quantum communication community," said Daniel Oblak, a quantum communications researcher at the University of Calgary in Ontario who did not work on the experiment.

It opens the door, he said, to practical quantum-encrypted networks relying on both satellites and fiber-optic cables working in tandem, something not possible with current technology.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/super-secure-quantum-messages-headed-to-space.html

[lastlib]

1. This could be ominous for our security...

I'm certainly no expert here, and not even really an amateur. But it sounds like this will make possible communication that adversaries could not even begin to decrypt. Any advantage we might have in this regard is almost certainly gone now.