• GUNSThe Ghost Gun Surge Is Abating. This Is How It Happened.

    By Chip Brownlee

    Ghost guns went from being relatively rare to ubiquitous in a short time span. Regulating them appears to be fueling a reversal.

  • QUANTUM TECHNOLOGYIllinois DARPA Quantum Proving Ground

    A new federal- and state-funded Quantum Proving Ground (QPG) promises to combine scientific rigor with industry and academic expertise to design the future of quantum computing

  • CYERSECURITYStandardizing Encryption Algorithms That Can Resist Attack by Quantum Computers

    Last year, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) selected four algorithms designed to withstand attack by quantum computers. Now the agency has begun the process of standardizing these algorithms — the final step before making these mathematical tools available so that organizations around the world can integrate them into their encryption infrastructure. Three new algorithms are expected to be ready for use in 2024. Others will follow.

  • GREAT-POWER CONFLICTPreparing for Great Power Conflict

    How has the military experience gained by both the U.S. military and the PLA since 2001 shaped the way both militaries train? What effect do these experiences and training trends have on readiness for major power conflict?

  • CRYPTOGRAPHYSecure Cryptography with Real-World Devices Is Now Possible

    New research published in Nature explains how an international team of researchers have, for the first time, experimentally implemented a type of quantum cryptography considered to be the ‘ultimate’, ‘bug-proof’ means of communication.

  • The Russia connectionTwitter bots played disproportionate role spreading misinformation during 2016 election

    An analysis of information shared on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential election has found that automated accounts — or “bots” — played a disproportionate role in spreading misinformation online. The study analyzed 14 million messages and 400,000 articles shared on Twitter between May 2016 and March 2017 — a period that spans the end of the 2016 presidential primaries and the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017.

  • EncryptionEntangled photons help bug-proof communication

    Due to the rapidly growing processing power of computers, conventional encryption of data is becoming increasingly insecure. One solution is coding with entangled photons. Researchers are developing a quantum coding source that allows the transport of entangled photons from satellites, thereby making an important step in the direction of tap-proof communication.

  • EncryptionU of T-led research team discovers new quantum encryption method to foil hackers

     

    Quantum cryptography is, in principle, a foolproof way to prevent hacking; it ensures that any attempt by an eavesdropper to read encoded communication data will lead to disturbances that can be detected by the legitimate users

  • Securing the cloudQuantum physics makes possible perfectly secure cloud computing

    Computer data processing and storage are increasingly done in the cloud; the challenge in cloud-based system is to ensure that clients’ data stays private; researchers have now shown that perfectly secure cloud computing can be achieved with quantum computers

  • Cybersecurity / quantum cryptographyDefeating detector blinding attacks on quantum cryptography

    Quantum cryptography is a method to distribute digital encryption keys across an optical fiber; the protocol has been proven to be perfectly secure from eavesdropping; any differences between the theoretical protocol and its real-world implementation, however, can be exploited to compromise the security of specific systems; one form of attack on quantum cryptography is called a detector blinding attack — but Toshiba researchers show how such attacks can be rendered ineffective

  • Quantum encryptionCommercial quantum cryptography vulnerable to attack

    Quantum cryptography is one of the most secure known means of transmitting data; in fact, it is often described as “unbreakable” because it relies on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle — observation causes perturbation: if a third party does intercept a quantum signal, this very interception changes the encryption key, making the tampering apparent to parties at both ends; researchers, though, developed and tested a technique exploiting imperfections in quantum cryptography systems to implement an attack

  • World Cup watchWorld Cup security uses quantum encryption to thwart hackers

    Scientists in South Africa are helping the organizers of the World Cup by tapping the laws of physics to prevent hackers from monitoring videos, e-mails, and phone calls relayed between Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium and a nearby operations center for police, firefighters, and military personnel

  • A first: Commercial quantum cryptography system hacked

    Physicists have mounted the first successful attack of its kind on a commercial quantum cryptography system; since in the real world it is impossible to get rid of errors entirely, quantum encryption tolerates a small level of error; various proofs show that if the quantum bit error rate is less than 20 percent, then the message is secure; these proofs, though, assume that the errors are the result of noise from the environment; researchers show how hackers can exploit this assumption

  • Breakthrough: new record bit rate for quantum key distribution

    Quantum encryption is the ultimate in unbreakable encrypted communication; it is based upon sending encoding single photons (particles of light) along the fiber; the laws of quantum physics dictate that any attempt by an eavesdropper to intercept and measure the photons alters their encoding, meaning that eavesdropping on quantum keys cannot not be detected; the major problem quantum encryption faces is the relatively short distance of encrypted transmissions