[Clips] Your secrets are safe with quasar encryption

[R. A. Hettinga]

--- begin forwarded text


  Delivered-To: clips at philodox.com
  Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 17:19:01 -0500
  To: Philodox Clips List <clips at philodox.com>
  From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] Your secrets are safe with quasar encryption
  Reply-To: rah at philodox.com
  Sender: clips-bounces at 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 <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  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 <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
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'