Stephen Page argues that given the capability of quantum computers to invalidate cryptography techniques, society should "create safeguards, standards and laws to prevent people from using quantum computers to wreak destruction."
Code-makers could be on the verge of winning their ancient arms race with code-breakers. After 20 years of research, an encryption process is emerging that is considered unbreakable because it employs the mind-blowing laws of quantum physics.
British researchers say they are close to producing an off-the-shelf system that exploits quantum physics to create a secure communications channel.
Walter Simmons, a physicist at the University of Hawaii, together with his colleague, Professor Sandip Pakvasa, have come up with a clever scheme that would allow interstellar broadcasters to keep the coordinates of their home planet secret by taking advantage of advances in quantum cryptography.
Quantum encryption is about to make life much more difficult for Internet spies. Not only will it make data uncrackable, the new technology also speeds up the increasingly slow process of sending coded messages over the Internet.
Scientists at Northwestern University say they have harnessed the properties of light to encrypt information into code that can be cracked only one way: by breaking the physical laws of nature.
Quantum cryptography keys encoded in photons of light have been transmitted more than 23 kilometres through air, British researchers have announced. They say the breakthrough is an important step towards a global communications system that is completely secure.
Until recently, the idea of quantum key distribution has been tested only in the physics laboratory. Now, a team from the University of Geneva and Swiss electronics company id Quantique have demonstrated what is described as the "first fully integrated quantum cryptography prototype machine" across a telecommunications network.
The heart of a new light-emitting diode (LED) developed in Cambridge, UK, can be controlled so precisely that it emits just one single photon of light each time it is switched on. The device could be a key component in quantum cryptography, a code-making technology which, it is hoped, will be uncrackable.
Scientists have drawn up the blueprint for a new device that could make absolutely secret communications possible over huge distances within the next few years. Quantum physics can provide a completely secure method of communication between two distant correspondents. Sending photons entangled in a quantum state makes it impossible for an eavesdropper to intercept a message.