Multi-drop quantum cryptography article in Nature 385, 47-49 (1997)

[Paul Pomes]

(Reproduced from <http://www.nature.com>)

Eavesdropping on the line 

Secure electronic communication is becoming increasingly important. In
recent years, quantum cryptography has been investigated as a means of
detecting eavesdroppers on private lines. When quantum mechanical processes
are used to establish the 'key' used for encryption and decryption, any
eavesdropping during transmission leads to an unavoidable and detectable
disturbance in the received key information. This technique has been
demonstrated to be effective on standard communication lines between two
users, but Paul D. Townsend now introduces a practical scheme for a
multi-user network. This work demonstrates the technical feasibility of
quantum cryptography for practical applications.  P D Townsend Quantum
cryptography on multi-user optical fibre networks (Letter to Nature) Nature
385, 47-49 (1997)