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Security: Securing Your Credit Card with Quantum Physics
Pepijn Pinkse
Quantum-Secure Authentication (QSA) is a new technology that relies on the quantum properties of photons and their ability to be in multiple places at once. Recently researchers say that using QSA it’s possible to create secure unhackable credit cards.
The technology works by applying a “strip of nanoparticles to credit cards and e-passports with the background that the authenticity of the security strip is verified when you zap it with a laser in such a way as to create a unique pattern that’s impossible to crack.”
Pepijn Pinkse, professor at the University of Twente, said that “It would be like dropping 10 bowling balls onto the ground and creating 200 separate impacts…It’s impossible to know precisely what information was sent (what pattern was created on the floor) just by collecting the 10 bowling balls… Even if somebody has the full information of how the card is built, technology does not allow him to build a copy. The nanoparticles are too small and there are too many of them which need to be positioned with too high accuracy.”
Alan Woodward, visiting professor at the University of Surrey’s computing department, said that “it’s quite neat technology because it manages to verify someone’s authentication because you’re using the key you’re supposed to. Even a brute-force attack would never get the right answer, so it’s self-protecting in a way. It’s a really good use of quantum phenomenon and if it’s viable then it’s something we’ll see more of in the market.”
