Quantum hacking lab

通信安全在人类事务中一直扮演着重要的角色，是当今信息社会日常生活中的一个事实。它是由密码学提供的，而密码学的历史一直是失败的历史。编码者和密码破译者之间持续的紧张关系给我们带来了越来越强大的密码技术，以及越来越好的破解方法。我们今天所依赖的数学密码技术并非牢不可破。我们知道，未来的量子计算机将会破解它们，甚至可能找到一种经典的破解方法。这种猫捉老鼠的游戏会结束吗？完美的密码学有可能吗？20年前，一个希望出现了。新的密码学发明了，它基于物理定律，而不是基于对数学复杂性的推测。量子密码学承诺能够探测到任何物理上可能的窃听企图。在实验室里，制造出的机器可以将单个光子发送到越来越远的距离。几年前，第一批客户安装了商用产品。是我们对自然法则的理解最终战胜了一个千年来看起来微不足道的实际问题吗？有几个好奇的人仍然纳闷，于是把这些机器拆开了。他们看到的是，没有一台机器是完美的。然后，这些量子黑客想出了利用这些不可避免的小缺陷的方法，仍然窃取了秘密信息！制造商的回应是堵住已知的漏洞。科学家们开始改进量子通信方案和协议，使它们对某些——或者全部——不敏感。-机器缺陷。与此同时，黑客们也在不断寻找新的漏洞。这项资助试图回答是否有可能在原则上和实践中拥有完美的通信安全的问题。我们将系统地研究量子通信技术的缺陷及其对策。能否引入安全认证标准，我们拭目以待。我们希望，如果以及如何实现基于物理定律的真正安全的量子通信和密码学，将会出现一种理解。对加拿大和世界的影响可能是巨大的。

Communication security has always played a large role in human affairs, and is a fact of daily life in our today's information society. It is provided by cryptography, whose history has been a long history of failures. Constant tension between codemakers and codebreakers brought us increasingly stronger cryptographic techniques, and increasingly better ways to break them. Mathematical cryptographic techniques that we rely on today are not unbreakable. We know that a future quantum computer will break them, and perhaps even a classical cracking method will be found. Can this cat-and-mouse game ever end? Is perfect cryptography ever possible? Twenty years ago, a hope emerged. New cryptography, based on the laws of physics and not on conjectured complexity of mathematics, was invented. Quantum cryptography promised to detect any attempt of eavesdropping that was physically possible. In laboratories, machines were built that sent single photons over progressively longer distances. A few years ago, commercial products were installed to the first customers. Did our understanding of the laws of Nature finally brought a triumph over a millennia-old practical problem that now looked trivial? A few inquisitive minds still wondered, and took apart these machines. What they saw was that no machine could be built perfect. Then these quantum hackers devised ways to exploit the small inevitable flaws, and still yet steal the secret information! The manufacturers responded by plugging the known holes. Scientists began refining the quantum communication schemes and protocols to make them insensitive to certain - or perhaps all? - machine flaws. The hackers meanwhile kept finding new chinks in the armor. This grant attempts to answer the question of whether it is possible to have the perfect communication security in principle, and also in practice. We will systematically examine imperfections in quantum communication technology, and countermeasures to them. We will see if security certification standards can be introduced. We hope that an understanding will emerge if and how truly secure quantum communication and cryptography based on the laws of physics can be implemented. Impact on Canada and the world can be huge.