Quantum encryption (7)

4 Name: !WAHa.06x36 2005-04-30 13:16 ID:o4qN8iSB

Quantum encryption over the net is utterly non-sensical. Quantum encryption isn't really encryption, it's a way to protect against wiretapping. It doesn't apply to data, it applies to communication channels - you can build a physical system for sending data from point A to point B while ensuring that you know immediately if somebody tries to listen in.

To use this on a network, you would need a way to establish a direct physical link between two computers on the network. This completely negates the idea of a network, where you send data through multiple nodes. You could put quantum-encrypted links between all computers, but each computer the data passes through could still listen in on the data to its heart's contents, as it would have to receive it, process it, and then re-transmit it to the next node.

Quantum encryption is useful, but it's really only for special-purpose high-security applications. It also probably gets confused with the possible applications of quantum computing in cryptography, which is a completely different field, and mostly related to breaking encryption.

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