DTU and Niels Bohr Institute breaks two major quantum records

A collaboration of researchers from DTU and the Niels Bohr Institute have recently demonstrated a 100 per cent secure video connection using a quantum-encrypted connection.

The connection runs between the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen and Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby and uses the existing fibre network. The researchers successfully demonstrated the unhackable connection on 22 November.

Hackerproofed

Anders Eldrup, Chair of the Board of Innovation Fund Denmark, and Natasha Friis Saxberg, CEO of the Danish ICT Industry Association demonstrated the connection. While Anders Eldrup was in a laboratory at DTU in Lyngby, Natasha Friis Saxberg was in a laboratory at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. Postdoc Caterina Vigliar participated in the demonstration where she played the role of an eavesdropper.

The moment she manipulated the link, the connection between Anders Eldrup and Natasha Friis Saxberg was cut. It was only re-established when the attempted eavesdropping was abandoned.

A growing need for cybersecurity

According to DTU Professor Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe - one of the researchers behind the new connection - our current mathematically-based encryption will soon be challenged by quantum computers or quantum computer-like systems:

“The risk of hacking is increasing, and many expect that the encryption codes we know today will become insecure within a few years. So there is a real need for us to move away from encryptions based on computational complexity, where you use an algorithm to form a code.”

The connection is also the world's first connection with a so-called deterministic single-photon source - thereby setting two records.