As we accelerate even deeper into the virtual world, who we are is reduced to our credit card purchases, social media platforms, health information, and Google searches. Thus, the need for better methods of cybersecurity has never been more paramount, considering the 1052% increase in internet usage worldwide between 2000 and the end of 2017.
The Age of the Internet has been the best of times, with FaceTime connecting long-distance lovers, Amazon alleviating holiday shopping stress, and electronic medical records relaying patient information between health care providers. It has also been the worst of times, with infamous cybersecurity meltdowns that have exposed billions of users. Yahoo, E-Bay, Target, Equifax, the CIA — all of these data giants have been compromised, leaving social security numbers, credit card information, and birth dates accessible to the devious, ill-hearted trolls of the internet.
The reach of these cyber attacks is disturbing, but to dismantle the internet is sheer blasphemy. International professionals are seeking counsel from physicists to help with recent security issues.
This issue of security has remained one of the most vexing questions for everyday citizens and members of the scientific community, like Dr. Yuping Huang, a physics professor at Stevens Institute of Technology. Now, as leader of the Quantum Enhanced Systems and Technology (QuEST) Lab, he and his team have just unveiled a quantum communication system that might, as Huang put it, “revolutionize our society just like smartphones did.”
Communication comes in many forms, whether textual or numerical. Getting from Point A to Point B requires what is called a communication link. The link allows one party to send information across a distance without being intercepted (perhaps Tom Brady would have benefited greatly from this lesson). Before your “Hello!” reaches your best friend or your credit card is charged for those overpriced jeans, the message is encrypted by an algorithm that jumbles the message. When the information arrives at its intended location, the message is decrypted, or solved, into its original form by another algorithm.
Lac Nguyen, a Physics and Electrical Engineering Ph.D. candidate and member of Huang’s team, explained that the current encryption and decryption methods are vulnerable. “These algorithms are created by a mathematical algorithm,” said Nguyen. “Right now, it might take a normal computer 100 years to solve the algorithm but with a quantum computer, it can be solved in minutes.” Cracking the code, or “key” as it is known by cybersecurity experts, on either the encrypting or decrypting end is dangerous because users are not aware that a hacking attempt has been made until after the fact. Rather than working within the limits of current communication links, Huang’s team is fighting fire with fire with their quantum communication system.
Quantum communications might seem complicated, but according to Physics Ph.D. candidate Patrick Rehain, the system “takes advantage of two fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics. Everything is probabilistic in nature and inherently random.” Harnessing the somewhat mystical but very real principles of light energy and quantum entanglement, the group has devised a method that provides for ultra-secure communication first through a quantum channel and then through the classical channel — the internet.
Here’s how the system works: light is generated via an optical pulse and sent to a waveguide, which effectively splits one photon into two twin photons. Like monozygotic twins, these photons share certain properties when observed, regardless of the distance between them. “Now the messages [with our system] are encrypted with keys generated by photons detections,” said Nguyen. Instead of deterministic keys generated by an algorithm that can be hacked, the randomness and probabilistic nature of light provide for truly random encryption keys. Any attempt to “steal” or measure one of the twin photons is known by the other, making the system, as the team calls it, “bulletproof” to hackers. “If someone intercepts the message in the classical channel, they will only read garbage data because they do not know how to decode the transformed message,” said Rehain.
Huang’s team has since taken its technology out of the lab and given Stevens Institute of Technology the nation’s first campus hybrid quantum communication network. The network is comprised of three nodes: the photon switch located in the Burchard Building on the lower end of campus and two links to both a kiosk desk on the first floor of the Samuel C. Williams Library and the Hanlon 2 Financial Lab across the street in the Babbio Center. The Burchard and library nodes are connected via an underground fiber-optic cable while the quantum link to Babbio is through free space, or air. “Generating single entangled photon keys via both free space and an optical fiber shows the ability of this hybrid system,” said Nguyen. “Free space links are most cost-effective, while fiber links are less weather dependent […] but our link can switch between both.”
“What we are trying to do is take the quantum technology out of the lab and put it on the campus to provide Stevens students access to the future technology,” said Huang, alluding to the node in the library, nicknamed the “Quantum Corner.” Very soon, students will be able to send messages in AOL Instant Messenger fashion via the quantum link to Burchard. Huang believes having just a cursory understanding and experience with the quantum network puts students at an advantage: “If [Stevens] students are interviewed and companies ask them if they know about quantum communication, they can say that ‘oh, well I played with it.’”
Quantum information and computing are expected to be the next big revolution in society, and the Physics Department is committed to harnessing the network as a key component in future curriculum. “This new quantum technology industry will demand hands-on practical skills that can only be developed through purposely, designed courses and a lab-based quantum training program,” said Yu Ting, Stevens Physics Department Chair. “I believe that this campus-wide quantum communication system will play a very important role in training students at Stevens to be able to access and work on technology of tomorrow.”
The team recognizes the enormous potential of the technology, but there is work yet to be done. Right now, the system can generate 20 to 30 keys per minute. “The software for error detection is the tough part,” noted Nguyen. “Our goal is to generate 10 million keys per second.” Huang would also like to see the physical size of the system decrease to fit on a small, compact microchip. “This way, anyone can use it and you do not need anyone to teach you how to use it and you can have secure communication with your friends!”
The team notes that it has only been able to turn on the first campus hybrid quantum network with the help of key administrators and faculty at Stevens, specifically Dean of the Schaefer School of Engineering and Science, Jean Zu. “Without her support, it could not have happened,” said Huang. “I am counting on her to allow us to build more nodes and grow our network.”
At the end of the day, communication is everything, whether it be for scholars expressing their novel ideas, governments trading defense secrets, or college students staying connected with family and friends at home. It is the QuEST team’s hope to continue to shine light (literally) on its revolutionary method of communication while simultaneously meeting the needs and curiosity of students everywhere.
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