Toshiba forges ahead with secure web streaming
3 May 2005
A new system from Toshiba has hailed a new breakthrough to make voice and video files streamed over the net untappable and ultra-secure.
Available within the next few years, the Quantum Key Server system, which refreshes keys without interruption is an emerging technology that will revolutionise digital security.
According to an article in Nature, the Toshiba system generates up to 100 quantum 'keys' every second, fast enough to protect every frame in a video exchange.
The technology works over a distance of around 120km over fibre optic connections and could become commercially available within two years at an initial cost of $20,000, according to Toshiba.
Scientists at Toshiba's UK labs in Cambridge said that applications using secure quantum cryptographic techniques are about three years away.
Toshiba's Dr Andrew Shields, who leads the development group, said that each frame in a video file could be encrypted using separate keys, which means that cracking one frame of a video would be useless unless other frames were cracked too.
Dr Shields told BBC News: "I sometimes say it is like the messages in Mission Impossible. If anyone tries to read the messages, they self destruct."
Quantum cryptography involves encoding bits of encryption data onto photons, or particles of light. The self-managing system can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and can also be extended to cover other data files which require high bandwidth, such as sensitive legal documents, tax records or medical histories.
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