April 28, 2005 - (HOSTSEARCH.COM) - Web hosts and their clients have a reason to be nervous these days with identity fraud scams including phishing and pharming on the rise along with viruses in general. If these problems reach a critical mass where it is simply not safe to keep personal information on a computer then consumers will lose confidence in eCommerce and the Internet technology industry may subsequently go through a collapse that makes the 1997 market bubble burst seem insignificant by comparison. At least one dimension of security however looks to be taking a profound step forward. Quantum encryption which is absolutely unbreakable through brute force means and hypothetically unbreakable period is on its way to becoming a standard technology.
A research tean at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei headed by Jian-Wei Pan have successfully transmitted entangled photons more than 7 kilometres. This may not seem like much but in comparison to the previous 600 meter record held by scientists in Vienna it’s a break-through.
As reported at New Scientist, the researchers used large telescopes to transmit photons via laser beams 12 centimetres across as opposed to the Vienna team’s 1-millimetre-diameter laser beam.
"In the autumn we will test transmission of entangled photons between receivers 20 kilometres apart on the Great Wall," Jian-Wei Pan said. "We used to use light from fires on the Great Wall to signal invasions, now we are going to signal the future."
