Security professionals would balk at the notion of a computer code so perfectly unbreakable that you couldn't crack it entering, exiting, or even performing its operations on a system, but a team of scientists says they've accomplished exactly that with what's called "blind quantum computing."
The researchers, led by Stefanie Barz of the University of Vienna's Center for Quantum Science and Technology, reported in Friday's issue of Science that they are able to transmit an algorithm to a computer, run it, and receive it back even as the computer's operator is completely unable to snoop on those operations.
Quantum computing is still highly theoretical, with experiments in the science and its cousin, quantum cryptography, limited to laboratory settings—there are no practical quantum computers, just experimental ones. The basic concept is to use the odd nature of the entangled quantum bits, or qubits, that one uses to build a quantum computer to perform computational tasks much faster and much more securely than is possible on digital computers that use silicon transistors.
One of the peculiarities of the branch of physics called quantum mechanics is that objects can be in more than one state at once, with the states of different objects tied together in ways that even Albert Einstein famously referred to as "spooky".
Instead of the 0 and 1 "bits" of digital computing, quantum computing aims to make use of these mixed and entangled states to perform calculations at comparatively breathtaking speeds.
Other quantum trickery comes in cryptography, the art of encrypting data. Data is encoded in delicately prepared states - most often those of single particles of light called photons - and the data cannot be "read" without destroying them.
Quantum cryptography uses this feature to send the "keys" to decrypting messages with high security.
However, the quantum computing approach is still in its formative stages, able to carry out only simple calculations - and quantum cryptography is, for the most part, limited to the laboratory setting.
The world in which both are accessible to consumers has seemed distant.
The researchers, led by Stefanie Barz of the University of Vienna's Center for Quantum Science and Technology, reported in Friday's issue of Science that they are able to transmit an algorithm to a computer, run it, and receive it back even as the computer's operator is completely unable to snoop on those operations.
Quantum computing is still highly theoretical, with experiments in the science and its cousin, quantum cryptography, limited to laboratory settings—there are no practical quantum computers, just experimental ones. The basic concept is to use the odd nature of the entangled quantum bits, or qubits, that one uses to build a quantum computer to perform computational tasks much faster and much more securely than is possible on digital computers that use silicon transistors.
One of the peculiarities of the branch of physics called quantum mechanics is that objects can be in more than one state at once, with the states of different objects tied together in ways that even Albert Einstein famously referred to as "spooky".
Instead of the 0 and 1 "bits" of digital computing, quantum computing aims to make use of these mixed and entangled states to perform calculations at comparatively breathtaking speeds.
Other quantum trickery comes in cryptography, the art of encrypting data. Data is encoded in delicately prepared states - most often those of single particles of light called photons - and the data cannot be "read" without destroying them.
Quantum cryptography uses this feature to send the "keys" to decrypting messages with high security.
However, the quantum computing approach is still in its formative stages, able to carry out only simple calculations - and quantum cryptography is, for the most part, limited to the laboratory setting.
The world in which both are accessible to consumers has seemed distant.
No comments:
Post a Comment