A new type of security identification could soon see the light of day, assisting us in protecting our data from hackers and cybercriminals. Quantum mathematicians at the University of Copenhagen have solved a mathematical puzzle that allows a person’s geographical location to be used as a personal ID that is secure against even the most sophisticated cyber attacks.
For thousands of years, people have used codes and encryption to prevent information from falling into the wrong hands. Today, encryption is widely used to protect our digital activity from hackers and cybercriminals who assume false identities and use the internet and our growing number of digital devices to steal from us.
As a result, there is a constant need for new security measures to detect hackers impersonating our banks or other trusted institutions. Researchers from the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen have just made a giant leap in this field.
“In cryptography, there is a constant battle between those who want to protect information and those who want to crack it. New security keys are created and then broken, and the cycle continues. Until a completely different type of key is discovered “, according to Professor Matthias Christandl.
Our method is completely secure and impossible to hack until a full-fledged quantum computer is built and hackers gain access to one.
Andreas Bluhm
For nearly two decades, researchers all over the world have been attempting to solve the mystery of how to securely determine a person’s geographical location and use it as a secure ID. This was previously not possible using traditional methods such as GPS tracking.
“Today, there are no traditional methods, such as the internet or radio signals, for determining another person’s geographical location with 100% accuracy. Current methods are not impenetrable, and hackers can impersonate someone you trust even if they are located thousands of miles away. However, quantum physics opens up a number of completely new possibilities” according to Matthias Christandl.
Quantum physics makes hacking impossible
The researchers created a new security protocol based on quantum physics laws that uses a person’s geographical location to ensure that they are communicating with the correct person. When a bank calls and asks a customer to make changes to their account, position-based quantum encryption, as it is known, can be used to ensure that the person is speaking with an actual bank representative.
“Consider why you put your trust in a bank employee. They’re in a bank, after all. Their location instills confidence. This explains the underlying principle of pposition-based cryptography, in which physical location is used to identify oneself “Andreas Bluhm, a postdoctoral researcher, explains.
The researchers’ recipe for securing a person’s location combines the information in a single quantum bit a qubit followed by classical bits, which consist of the ones and zeroes that we are familiar with from ordinary computers. Both types of bits are required to send a message that cybercriminals cannot read, hack, or manipulate, and that can confirm whether a person is in your bank’s office or in another country.
Due to the role of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle in quantum physics, which causes quantum information to be disrupted and impossible to decode when attempting to measure it, the quantum bit serves as a kind of lock on the message. It is also due to the “no-cloning theorem,” which makes it impossible to intercept and secretly copy quantum information. This will likely continue for some time.
“Our method is completely secure and impossible to hack until a full-fledged quantum computer is built and hackers gain access to one,” Andreas Bluhm says.
Could soon be a reality
The researchers emphasize that the new method is particularly useful because it only requires a single quantum bit for position verification. In contrast to many other quantum technologies that require further development, this new discovery can be used right away. There are already suitable quantum sources capable of sending a quantum bit of light.
“Our technique’s unique strength is its ease of implementation. We can already send single quantum bits, which is all that this technique requires” according to Matthias Christandl.
Before it can be widely adopted, the security ID must be commercially developed, for example, by a company. Its quantum foundation, on the other hand, is in place. The new research finding is especially useful in situations where two parties’ communications must be extremely secure. This could include online payments or the transmission of sensitive personal information.
“Secure communication is an essential part of our everyday lives. When we communicate with government officials, banks, or any other entity that handles our personal data and information, we need to know that the people we’re dealing with are who we expect them to be – not criminals “Andreas Bluhm says.
