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Article

Title: Quantum Key Distribution

Author: Ouellette, Jennifer Article Type: Product Analysis
Source: Industrial Physicist, v10 n6 p22(4) Publication Date: Dec 2004
  ISSN: 1082-1848
  Illustrations: Charts

MagiQ Technologies and ID Quantique have made available commercial quantum key distribution (QKD) systems that are used to exchange secret keys that guard data during transmission. Several other vendors have plans to enter the market within two years. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) presently funds several quantum-cryptography projects as part of a $20.6 million initiative for quantum information. Worldwide, public and private funding sources will provide about $50 million over the next several years. The market value of QKD systems is expected to reach $200 million in a few years, but could in time be worth $1 billion per year. QKD is based on Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which holds that the very act of observing or measuring a particle, such as a photon in a data stream, changes its behavior. A key distributed with quantum cryptography would be almost impossible to steal because QKD systems constantly and randomly generate new private keys that are shared automatically by both sender and receiver. The most common standard protocol for QKD is called BB84 after Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard, who are the IBMers who invented QKD in 1984. Randomly generated keys are changed as many as 1,000 times per second in MagiQ's OPN Security Gateway.

Special Features: Charts

Companies:
id Quantique SA MagiQ Technologies Inc

Products:
Quantum Cryptography

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