How would you feel if you invested millions of dollars in quantum
cryptography, and then learned that you could do the same thing with a
few 25-cent Radio Shack components?
<>I’m exaggerating a little here, but if a new idea out of Texas
A&M University turns out to be secure, we’ve come close.
Earlier this month, Laszlo Kish proposed
securing a communications link, like a phone or computer line, with a
pair of resistors. By adding electronic noise, or using the natural
thermal noise of the resistors — called "Johnson noise" — Kish can
prevent eavesdroppers from listening in.
In the blue-sky field of quantum cryptography, the strange physics
of the subatomic world are harnessed to create a secure, unbreakable
communications channel between two points. Kish’s research is
intriguing, in part, because it uses the simpler properties of classic
physics — the stuff you learned in high school — to achieve the same
results.
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