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Delivered-To: clips@philodox.com
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 17:19:01 -0500
To: Philodox Clips List
From: "R. A. Hettinga"
Subject: [Clips] Your secrets are safe with quasar encryption
Reply-To: rah@philodox.com
Sender: clips-bounces@philodox.com
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8913&print=true
- Breaking News | Print | New Scientist
Your secrets are safe with quasar encryption
* 16:00 29 March 2006
* NewScientist.com news service
* Will Knight
Intergalactic radio signals from quasars could emerge as an exotic but
effective new tool for securing terrestrial communications against
eavesdropping.
Japanese scientists have come up with a method for encrypting messages
using the distant astronomical objects, which emit radio waves and are
thought to be powered by black holes.
Ken Umeno and colleagues at the National Institute of Information and
Communications Technology in Tokyo propose using the powerful radio signals
emitted by quasars to lock and unlock digital communications in a secure
fashion.
The researchers believe quasars could make an ideal cryptographic tool
because the strength and frequency of the radio pulses they emit is
impossible to predict. "Quasar-based cryptography is based on a physical
fact that such a space signal is random and has a very broad frequency
spectrum," Umeno told New Scientist.
One-time pad
Randomness provides a simple means of high-security information encryption,
providing two communicating parties have access to the same source of
random information. For example, a randomly generated "one-time pad" shared
by two parties can be used to encrypt and decrypt a message by simply
transposing each individual bit of a message for bits on the pad.
Genuine randomness is hard to generate artificially and the
"pseudo-randomness" which most computers use is unsuitable for use in
cryptography as patterns will be revealed over time. In addition, it is
also tricky for two parties to share a source of randomness securely.
Umeno and his colleagues suggest using an agreed quasar radio signal to add
randomness to a stream cipher - a method of encrypting information at high
speed.
Each communicating party would only need to know which quasar to monitor
and when to start in order to encrypt and decrypt a message. Without
knowing the target quasar and time an eavesdropper should be unable to
decrypt the message.
Internet link
Umeno believes astronomical cryptography could appeal to anyone who
requires high-security communications. He adds that the method does not
require a large radio antenna or that the communicating parties be located
in the same hemisphere, as radio signals can be broadcast over the internet
at high speed.
"Concerning potential users, I suggest international financial
institutions, governments and embassies," Umeno says.
The researchers used quasar signals collected by Very Long Baseline
Interferometry antenna at the institute to encrypt messages and have filed
two patents covering quasar-based cryptography: one for locking and
unlocking messages and another for generating digital signatures that can
be used to match messages or files to a person.
Related Articles
* Photon detector is precursor to broadband in space
* http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8877
* 21 March 2006
* Busted! A crisis in cryptography
* http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18825301.600
* 17 December 2005
* Let chaos keep your secrets safe
* http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18825262.000
* 19 November 2005
Weblinks
* National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
* http://www.nict.go.jp/
* Quasar Encryption patent
*
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=20050242987&OS=20050242987&RS=20050242987
* Quasar Authentication patent
*
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=20030145202&OS=20030145202&RS=20030145202
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R. A. Hettinga
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation http://www.ibuc.com/
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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--
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation http://www.ibuc.com/
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'