A team of researchers claim to have made theoretically perfectly secret data transmission an everyday possibility.
The Cambridge Lab of Toshiba Research Europe team have demonstrated continuous operation of quantum key distribution (QKD) with a secure bit rate exceeding 1 Megabit/sec over 50 km of fibre for the first time.
This study, which is to appear in the scientific journal Applied Physics Letters, will now enable everyday use of "one-time pad" encryption, which is the only known method that is theoretically perfectly secret, according to the researchers.
In the past, this has only been used for short messages requiring particularly high security, such as data sent by the military or security services.
Dr Andrew Shields, who directs this work at Toshiba Research Europe, admitted that much development work remains, but the advance "could allow unconditionally secure communication with significant bandwidths".
Commercial adoption of the technology derived from the research could occur in around three to five years, Shields told IT PRO.
While it could initially be aimed at organisations in need of high-level security such as banks and government bodies, Dr Shields revealed that some telecommunications companies have already shown an interest in the findings.
He added that the research team has spoken to a number of parties about future use of the technology, but could not go provide names or further details.
