Headline, June23, 2013

'''HACKING :

 HIGH HOPES AND HOT ROCKS'''

So very recently, a team from NUST.....Nah..Nah... Nah,  Hahaha!  what I mean is, -the Norwegian University of Science and Technology-  and the National University of Singapore, led by Makarov and Ilja Gerhardt, hacked into a system that connects several buildings on the National University of Singapore's campus.

Their eavesdropping apparatus  -which was small enough to fit in a suitcase- was designed to take advantage of a weakness in a particular sort of photon detector in the target's receiving equipment. If hit with a bright enough flash of light, such detectors are blinded. And if, on top of the bright pulse, a smaller pulse of the right size is sent, the detector can be forced to record a one or a zero. 

In essence, the Hacker now has control of the detector. After intercepting the key, the hacker can make it record just the right pattern of bits without any of the telltale errors this eavesdropping was supposed to introduce. Using this technique, Dr Makarov and his team were able to steal the entire key without leaving any trace of their activities.

The second hack was carried out by a team from the University of Toronto, led by Hoi-Kwong Lo. They stole information from a research version of a system made ID Quantique, a Swiss firm that it trying to commercialise quantum cryptography, by fiddling with synchronisation signals that pass between the Hacker and the Target.

It sounds foolproof. One of the fundamental tenets of Quantum Mechanics is that measuring a physical system always disturbs it. If the system in question is a message written as a series of digital bits encoded in the polarisation of light, this means that intercepting and reading the message can no longer be done surreptitiously. The receiver should be able to detect an eavesdropper and take appropriate countermeasures

To a hacker, though, the word ''foolproof'' is a challenge. And to prove the point, two groups of academics spies, that I have covered through in the beginning, went on to prove that whatever the theory says, practical attempts to hide messages this way can still be vulnerable.

In order to encrypt a message, the sender, known conventionally as Alice scrambles it using a secret key before sending it to the receiver, known as Bob. Even if Eve, the eavesdropper, intercepts the message, she cannot make sense of it without the key. The problem, then, is how to pass the key from Alice to Bob without Eve getting hold of it as well.

Quantum key distribution does this by encoding the information in the polarisation states of individual photons, the particles of light, which are sent by Alice to Bob over an optical fibre. If Eve taps into the line and intercepts the key, she disturbs the photons when she measure their polarisation  By comparing a subset of the photons that Alice sends with what Bob measures, the pair can check for the presence of errors introduced by Eve. If errors are detected, Bob can throw away the key and ask for another.

In practice, quantum key-distribution systems rely on sophisticated optical equipment to prepare , transmit and detect the individual polarised photons that make up the key. And when these real world components meet the clever academic theorems that are supposed to guarantee security, holes emerge.

The Nations of the world are Hacking away for Hot Rocks. Every one is blaming the other and all are looking at Quantum Cryptography, which is unbreakable in theory. But like any security system, in practice it is only as safe as its weakest link.

Best Wishes for you : EVE.

I truly hope that on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers_Internet-Wireless we will be learning and juggling many a theorem.

Cryptography and Computing, here we come!

Respectful dedication to Security's Cat and Mouse. Respectful dedications to all the Dogs of the world, too: A man's best best, very best friend

Hahahaha!

Lastly, ever loving and ever respectful dedication to the great Samurai. Heroes All!

Put your Money where your Mouse is! Hahaha!  

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless