Quantum crypto, from BBC

[John S. Denker]

On 06/07/2003 08:04 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:
> I haven't seen this discussed here yet. 

It's been discussed here some, and discussed elsewhere
plenty.  I get 19,000 hits from

http://www.google.com/search?q=quantum+cryptography+product+OR+products

 > Is there something to this?

It depends on your definition of "something".

Quantum cryptography is perfectly real and is
fascinating in an academic sort of way.

The available products are somewhere between "not
very practical" and "ridiculous" if you ask me.

Most companies can't be bothered to do classical
crypto properly.  The idea that they would pay the
incremental cost to step up to quantum crypto seems
far-fetched to me.

On the scale of physics hype, quantum crypto in
particular and quantum computation in general are
nowhere near as bad as cold fusion, but perhaps
comparable to high-Tc superconductors, which had
a definite basis in fact, but their practicality
was wildly overclaimed.

>> Dr Shields' team have demonstrated quantum cryptography working over
>> distances of 100 km, which should be enough to cover large metropolitan
>> areas such as London and Tokyo.

This is not new news.

>> The Department of Trade and Industry has pledged cash to help the
>> researchers refine their work and bring commercial quantum cryptography
>> products to market.

Tee hee.  Very funny.  I don't think "trade and industry"
considerations are the driving force here.  I think the
military and the cryptologic agencies have rather larger
budgets than the Department of Trade and Industry, and
they are really who's paying for the flurry of R&D.

=================================

If you want to improve the fact-to-hype ratio, go to
   http://xxx.lanl.gov/find/quant-ph
and type "cryptography" in the 'abstract' box.  I get
82 hits in the range 2001-to-date.  And those lead to
yet other references.



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