BBN Technologies Unveils World's First Quantum Cryptography Network

R. A. Hettinga rah at shipwright.com
Thu Jun 3 08:14:19 EDT 2004


<http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK3.story&STORY=/www/story/06-03-2004/0002186418&EDATE=THU+Jun+03+2004,+07:50+AM>


Silicon Valley Biz Ink :: The voice of the valley economy

        June 3, 2004



Computers/Electronics News

Press release distributed
by PR Newswire

 BBN Technologies Unveils World's First Quantum Cryptography Network

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         Quantum Cryptography Breakthrough Delivers Absolute Security
                           Based on Laws of Physics

    CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- BBN Technologies announced today
that it has built the world's first quantum cryptography network and is now
operating it continuously beneath the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Today the DARPA Quantum Network links BBN's campus to Harvard University; soon
it will stretch across town to include Boston University as a third link.  The
Harvard University Applied Physics Department and the Boston University
Photonics Center have worked in close collaboration with BBN to build the
network under Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsorship.
    Information traveling over open networks such as the Internet is often
encrypted to prevent unauthorized eavesdropping.  Currently, complex
mathematical algorithms are the most common method used to scramble (encrypt)
and de-scramble (decrypt) messages that require secure transmission.  Although
this method can provide high levels of security, it is not infallible.  In
contrast, the DARPA Quantum Network introduces extremely high levels of
security for Internet-based communications systems by encrypting and
decrypting messages with keys created by quantum cryptography.
    Quantum cryptography, invented by Charles Bennett and Giles Brassard in
the 1980s, prepares and transmits single photons of light, through either
fiber optic cable or the atmosphere, to distribute cryptographic keys that are
used to encrypt and decrypt messages.  This method of securing information is
radically different from methods based on mathematical complexity, relying
instead on fundamental physical laws.  Because very small (quantum) particles
are changed by any observation or measurement, eavesdropping on a quantum
cryptography system is always detectable.
    The DARPA Quantum Network has improved on these techniques to create a
highly robust, six-node network that is both extremely secure and 100%
compatible with today's Internet technology.  Patent-pending BBN protocols
pave the way for robust quantum networks on a larger scale by providing "any
to any" networking of quantum cryptography through a mesh of passive optical
switches and cryptographic key relays.
    "People think of quantum cryptography as a distant possibility," said Chip
Elliott, a Principal Scientist at BBN and leader of its quantum engineering
team, "but the DARPA Quantum Network is up and running today underneath
Cambridge.  BBN has built a set of high-speed, full-featured quantum
cryptography systems and has woven them together into an extremely secure
network."
    "This kind of breakthrough is the essence of BBN," said Tad Elmer,
president and CEO of BBN.  "We were ahead of the technology curve with the
ARPANET and the first router, and our quantum network exemplifies the same
kind of forward thinking and innovation that has made BBN a technology
leader for over 50 years."

    About BBN Technologies
    BBN Technologies was established as Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. in 1948.
>From its roots as an acoustical design consulting firm, BBN grew to implement
and operate the ARPANET (the forerunner of today's Internet) and develop the
first network email, which established the @ sign as an icon for the digital
age.  Today BBN Technologies provides technical expertise and innovation to
both government and commercial customers.  Areas of expertise include: quantum
information, speech and language processing, networking, information security,
and acoustic technologies.  BBN has more than 600 employees in offices across
the US.  For more information, visit http://www.bbn.com.

     Media Contact:

     Joyce Kuzmin
     617-873-8193
     jkuzmin at bbn.com

    This release was issued through eReleases(TM).  For more information,
visit http://www.ereleases.com.






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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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