Quantum information technology for secure communication plus (QITSeCOM +)

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With the increasing importance of the Internet in our daily lives, how do we protect against tampering by a malevolent eavesdropper? Can we be sure that nobody can steal our password required for e-banking? Or learn about our business strategy?  What do we do if all of our on-line communication is not secure?Current communication security is based on mathematical assumptions. The problem with this approach is that we do not know if these assumptions are correct. Quantum Cryptography takes another approach. It bases security on fundamental, quantum physical laws.Quantum Cryptography relies on the inevitable modification of the properties of individual light particles when someone tries to gain information about these properties. Hence, if we first send a key to our bank or business partner, and we encode this key into light particles, we can find out if somebody tried to listen in. Therefore, we can also know if nobody tampered with the key. Since we now have a secret key, we can use it to lock our information in a provable secure way, and only our partner can unlock it.Quantum Cryptography was first proposed in the 1980's, and the first commercial systems have now been available for a few years. Yet, it still suffers from low key distribution rates, requires better integration into existing communication architecture, and is currently limited to transmission distances of around 100 km.QITSeCom + builds on Dr Tittel's extensive experience in bringing quantum cryptography and communication out of the laboratory into a real telecommunications network. It aims to conduct basic research into key elements of a quantum repeater, including quantum teleportation and quantum memory, which is required to challenge the distance barrier.