Quantum leap: Untangling Toshiba's 'unbreakable' encryption

According to the Japan Real Time blog, Toshiba is working on a ‘foolproof' quantum-cryptography system that industry analysts claim cannot be breached. Immediately this raises a number of red flags, not least the use of words such as unbreakable in relation to any encryption system, next-generation or not, and the fact that the analysts who are apparently claiming this remain unnamed in the report. SCMagazineUK.com decided to take a closer look. The Toshiba system, which starts a two-year long third-party data testing phase in August, uses photons delivered via custom fibre optic cables which are not connected to the internet. According to the unnamed analysts in the report, the one-time key is the same size as the encrypted data, so decoding without the correct key would be impossible as there will be no repeated use of the pattern. It may sound fantastical, but quantum cryptography really isn't anything new, nor has it proven to be as unbreakable as the boffins would have us believe.