E.U. seeks quantum cryptography response to Echelon

[Bdog]

http://security.itworld.com/4361/040517euechelon/page_1.html

The European Union is to invest €11 million (US $13 million) over the next four years to develop a secure communication system based on quantum cryptography, using physical laws governing the universe on the smallest scale to create and distribute unbreakable encryption keys, project coordinators said Monday.

If successful, the project will produce the cryptographer's holy grail -- absolutely unbreakable code -- and thwart the eavesdropping efforts of espionage systems such as Echelon, which intercepts electronic messages on behalf of the intelligence services of the U.S., Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

"The aim is to produce a communication system that cannot be intercepted by anyone, and that includes Echelon," said Sergio Cova, a professor from the electronics department of Milan Polytechnic and one of the project's coordinators. "We are talking about a system that requires significant technological innovations. We have to prove that it is workable, which is not the case at the moment." Major improvements in geographic range and speed of data transmission will be required before the system becomes a commercial reality, Cova said.

"The report of the European Parliament on Echelon recommends using quantum cryptography as a solution to electronic eavesdropping. This is an effort to cope with Echelon," said Christian Monyk, the director of quantum technologies at the Austrian company ARC Seibersdorf Research GmbH and overall coordinator of the project. Economic espionage has caused serious harm to European companies in the past, Monyk said. "With this project we will be making an essential contribution to the economic independence of Europe."

[Anarcho-Socialist]

1. Britain and Echelon

I wonder if each EU member country will keep their encryption keys secret from each other? Otherwise Britain may pass on secrets to its Echelon partners.

[gold_bug]

2. seems like overkill

to me. But I guess it would be pretty cool if they're able to make it work on a wide scale.

Echelon Watch - http://www.echelonwatch.org/

[lanparty]

3. Higher tech

This is quantum Crypto. There is another effort underway to do quantum communication using quantum entanglement.

Basically, it would allow you to communicate instantaneously from any point anywhere to anywhere else provided you have bonded sets of quantum entangled matter.

There would be absoluetly ZERO chance that such communication could be intercepted or detected. There is nothing to intercept.