[LINK] Surveillance

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Jore writes,

> > And in terms of the future it seems that technology's trending towards
> > anti-surveillance, anti-1984. Consider, quantum computing and networks:  
> 
> 
> Hmmmm.. I fail to see how more technology .. firstly trends to anti
> surveillance, "anti-1984"; and second even if that were the case, how
> they could possibly even bring it about. The whole gig runs on computers.
> And more of the same = more of the same, doesn't it?  Regards, Jore


Jore, simply put, with current quantum science, we're NOT talking the same
computers & communication methods. And, we're already using it quite often.
Also, worldwide, there's now a huge scientific effort into quantum science.

For example: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2409368,00.asp

"An international team of physicists has broken the distance record for 
'quantum teleportation' with the instantaneous transmission of quantum 
states encoded in photons over the 143 kilometers (89 miles) separating 
facilities on the islands of La Palma and Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

"Our experiment shows how mature our 'quantum technologies' are today, and 
how useful they can be for practical applications," said team leader Anton 
Zeilinger in a statement. 

"The next step is satellite-based quantum teleportation, which should 
enable quantum communication on a global scale."

Quantum teleportation has been heralded as having enormous potential for 
sending un-hackable messages between quantum computers on a future quantum 
Internet. 

It uses the peculiarities of entangled quantum states in a pair of 
particles like photons to get around the limitations of the universe's 
"speed limit," the speed of light. If you change the quantum state of one 
entangled photon, it turns out, any change is *instantly* reflected in the 
other photon, regardless of its physical distance from the transmitting, 
entangled particle.

What that means is that you could potentially send a message across the 
Solar System (or even the galaxy or the universe itself) and have it 
instantly appear in front of your recipient's eyes. Transmitting such a 
message by normal radio speed-of-light from Earth to Mars, for example, 
takes between three and 20 minutes to arrive, depending on the two planets' 
proximity at the time." (end quote)

So, we can now send data instantly, using entangled photons. In future, we
will probably send complete sets of data this way, but for now, sending an
encryption key for the data will suffice .. 

For example: http://scitechdaily.com/physicists-successfully-transmit-
quantum-code-through-the-atmosphere/

"Can worldwide communication ever be fully secure? 

Quantum physicists believe they can provide secret keys using quantum 
cryptography via satellite. 

Unlike communication based on classical electron bits, quantum cryptography 
employs the quantum states of single light quanta (photons) for the 
exchange of data. Like its classical counterpart, quantum cryptography 
requires a shared key with which the parties encode and decode messages. 

However, quantum mechanical phenomena guarantee the security of quantum key 
distribution. 

Because quantum states are fragile, interception of the key by an 
eavesdropper will alter the behavior properties of the particles, and thus 
becomes detectable.

This encrypting strategy is already being used by some government agencies 
and banks. 

Data are sent either along glass-fiber cables or through the atmosphere. 

However, optical key distribution via these channels is limited to 
distances of less than 200 km, due to signal losses along the way. In 2007, 
LMU physicist Harald Weinfurter and his group successfully transmitted a 
key over 144 km of free space between ground stations on the islands of 
Tenerife and La Palma. Distribution of such keys via satellite networks 
would make secure data transmission possible on a global scale.


Now, as reported in April 2013, a team led by Weinfurter and Sebastian 
Nauerth at the Physics Faculty at LMU Munich has now succeeded in optically 
transmitting quantum information between a ground station and a plane in 
flight. This is the first time that quantum cryptography has been used for 
communication with a mobile transmitter.

“This demonstrates that quantum cryptography can be implemented as an 
extension to existing systems,” says LMU’s Sebastian Nauerth.

Cheers,
Stephen