Quantum crypto firm charts way to mainstream

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://news.zdnet.com/2102-1009_22-5564288.html?tag=printthis>

Quantum crypto firm charts way to mainstream

 By Michael Kanellos
 URL: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5564288.html
Magiq Technologies is creating a new line of products this year that it
says could help make quantum encryption--theoretically impossible to
crack--more palatable to mainstream customers.

The New York-based company said it has signed a deal with Cavium Networks,
under which Cavium's network security chips will be included inside Magiq's
servers and networking boards.

 Magiq and Cavium will also create reference designs for networking boards
and cards, with all of the necessary silicon to create a quantum encryption
system. These will be marketed to networking gear makers, which, Magiq
hopes, will include the boards inside future boxes.

 "We have operability tests going on with major vendors," said Andy
Hammond, vice president of marketing at Magiq. "Our goal in life is to
increase the adoption rate of this technology."

 By the fall, Magiq expects to be able to provide functioning beta, or
test, products that include its quantum encryption boards. Volume sales to
manufacturers are scheduled to begin in 2006.

 Quantum encryption involves sending data by way of photons, the smallest
unit of light. The photons are polarized, or oriented, in different
directions. Eavesdroppers cause detectable changes in the orientation,
which in turn prevents them from getting secret information, as dictated by
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which says you can't observe something
without changing it. For added measure, the data is encrypted before
sending.

 "There is no cracking it. This is like the apple falling down," said
Audrius Berzanskis, Magiq's vice president of security engineering, meaning
that it was like one of Sir Isaac Newton's natural laws.

 This doesn't mean quantum encryption systems are unconditionally
foolproof, he added. Hypothetically, radio transmitters or some other
technology could intercept signals before they are sent. Still, these are
computer architecture issues: Unlike traditional encryption systems,
applying brute-force calculations to a message encrypted using quantum
methods will not eventually yield its contents to an unauthorized party.

 However, quantum encryption systems are pricey. The two-box system Magiq
sells goes for $70,000. Academic institutions and government agencies have
been the primary customers, the company said.

 Whether demand will go mainstream is still a matter of debate. Nearly
foolproof encryption has its obvious attractions. Various security experts
have stated, however, that the strength of today's cryptography is the
least of the security world's worries.

 "Security is a chain; it's only as strong as the weakest link. Currently
encryption is the strongest link we have. Everything else is worse:
software, networks, people. There's absolutely no value in taking the
strongest link and making it even stronger," Bruce Schneier, chief
technology officer at Counterpane Internet Security, wrote in an e-mail to
CNET News.com on quantum cryptography in general.

 "It's like putting a huge stake in the ground and hoping the enemy runs
right into it," he noted.

 Speed also has been a problem for quantum encryption. The deal with Cavium
will ideally boost the performance of the Magiq products and lower the
costs by standardizing some of the engineering. Cavium's chips, for
instance, will assume encryption tasks now performed in software. Reference
designs also allow potential customers to skirt some independent design
tasks.


-- 
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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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