http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id
=dn8913&print=true
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.
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.
However, some cryptography researchers question the need for
such an
unusual means of securing messages.
"This is interesting research, but there's no reason
for anyone to use
it in a practical application," says Bruce Schneier of
Counterpane
Security. "Furthermore, this is a brand new idea. Why
would anyone want
to use something new and untested when we've already got
lots of good
cryptography?"
Markus Kuhn from the University of Cambridge, UK, adds that
the physical
set-up could have potential weaknesses. "It is easy to
play tricks with
reception antennas," he says. For example, he suggests
that an attacker
could mimic a radio signal and "gain a lot of control
over the signal
that the receiver can see."
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*
http://www.newscientisttechnology.com/article/dn8877
* 21 March 2006
* Busted! A crisis in cryptography
* http://www.newscientisttechnology.com/article/mg1882
5301.600
* 17 December 2005
* Let chaos keep your secrets safe
* http://www.newscientisttechnology.com/article/mg1882
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* 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=HI
TOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&
r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=200502429
87&OS=20050242987&RS=20050242987
* Quasar Authentication patent
*
http:/
/appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HI
TOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&
r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=200301452
02&OS=20030145202&RS=20030145202
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