Firm offers 'unbreakable' codes based on energy particles

NEW YORK -- Code-makers could be on the verge of winning their ancient arms race with code-breakers.

After 20 years of research, an encryption process is emerging that is considered unbreakable because it employs the mind-blowing laws of quantum physics.

This month, a small startup called MagiQ Technologies Inc. began selling what appears to be the first commercially available system that uses individual photons to transfer the numeric keys that are widely used to encode and read secret documents.

Photons, discrete particles of energy, are so sensitive that if anyone tries to spy on their travel from one point to another, their behavior will change, tipping off the sender and recipient and invalidating the stolen code.

"There are really no ways (of) cracking this code," said Lov Grover, a quantum computing researcher at Bell Laboratories who is not involved with MagiQ.

Called Navajo -- a nod to the American Indian code specialists of World War II -- MagiQ's system consists of 19-inch black boxes that generate and read the signals over a fiber-optic line.

MagiQ (pronounced "magic," with the "Q" for "quantum") expects that with a cost of $50,000 to $100,000, Navajo will appeal to banks, insurers, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies and other organizations that transmit sensitive information.

"We think this is going to have a huge, positive impact on the world," said Bob Gelfond, MagiQ's founder and chief executive.

Encryption schemes commonly used now are considered safe, though they theoretically could be broken someday.

But even before that day arrives, Gelfond believes quantum encryption is superior in one important way. In some super-high-security settings, people sharing passwords and other information must have the same key, a massive string of digits used to encode data. Sometimes the keys will be transferred by imperfect means -- via courier or special software. They are not changed often and can be susceptible to interception.

"Even if you have the perfect encryption algorithm, if someone gets your key, you're in trouble," Gelfond said.

Of course, unbreakable codes would neutralize the ability of intelligence agents to intercept and read messages. That would necessitate greater reliance on human intelligence.

So does the world's foremost code-making and code-breaking organization, the U.S. National Security Agency, worry about the spread of quantum encryption? Better yet, is the NSA using the technology itself? Like most things about the NSA, those answers remain secret.

At least one other company, Switzerland-based id Quantique SA, has produced a system similar to Navajo, though that remains in pilot phase.

"We'll stop this race," said Grégoire Ribordy, a founder of id Quantique. "We'd like to have a system that's forever secure."

On the Net

www.magiqtech.com

www.idquantique.com