China builds computer network impenetrable to hackers
China builds computer network impenetrable to hackers
China is building the world’s first long-distance quantum
encryption network, a 1,200-mile line between Beijing and Shanghai that will be
theoretically unhackable
Malcolm Moore By Malcolm Moore, Hefei 5:34PM GMT 07 Nov
2014
China will soon have the world's most secure major
computer network, making communications between Beijing and Shanghai impenetrable
to hackers and giving it a decisive edge in its quiet cyberwar with the United
States.
In two years' time, a fibre-optic cable between the two
cities will transmit quantum encryption keys that can completely secure
government, financial and military information from eavesdroppers.
"We learnt after the Edward Snowden affair that we
are always being hacked," said Prof Pan Jianwei, a quantum physicist at
the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, who is
leading the project.
"Since most of the products we buy come from foreign
companies, we wanted to accelerate our own programme," he added.
"This is very urgent because classical encryption was not invented in
China, so we want to develop our own technology."
The £60 million cable, which is being funded by the
central government and has been supported by the Central Military Commission,
will initially mostly be used for money transfers by ICBC, the world's largest
bank.
However, Prof Pan said eventually all communications in
China, down to storing photographs on cloud servers, could feature quantum
encryption.
"Ten years ago it was not so easy to get sufficient
funding to support theoretical research, but since 2006 and 2007 when the
economy really went well, they have been putting more money into research and
then it really sped up," he said.
Half an hour's drive away from Prof Pan's office, at
Quantum Communications Technology, a company spun out of the university to
commercialise the technology, the importance of the project is clear. On the
walls are framed photographs of visits from almost all of China's top leaders,
including president Xi Jinping.
A huge video screen shows 56 terminals across the city
that are already using quantum encryption. Currently, anyone wanting to send a
secret message over the internet encrypts their communications so that only
someone with the right code at the other end can unlock it.
But the US National Security Agency reportedly has
computers powerful enough to crack encryption codes and is developing a quantum
computer that will be able to run calculations so quickly that it can easily
defeat encryption.
That means that, if it is able to tap fibre-optic cables
and copy data travelling down the line, its hackers should be able to unlock
the information.
Quantum encryption relies upon writing the encryption
codes, or keys, upon single photons of light (a quantum particle). If a hacker
tries to eavesdrop on the line, they will disturb the encoding of the photon
and be detected. Consequently, said Prof Pan, it should provide perfect
security.
"Of course, although quantum communication can in
principle provide absolute security, in practice, we have to prove it
thoroughly by various hacking tests. So we are inviting the finest hackers to
attack our system," he said.
"The Chinese are really pushing the
boundaries," said Raymond Laflamme, the head of the Institute for Quantum
Computing at the University of Waterloo in Canada. "They are moving at an
incredible rate. No one else around the world has plans that are this
ambitious."
"China is putting itself in the position of having
secure private information that other countries will not be able to tap,"
he added.
At least six other networks transmitting quantum
encryption keys have been built around the world, including one run by the US
Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency in Massachusetts. But all are on a
much smaller scale.
China's progress, which will also include the launch in
2016 of a satellite dedicated to quantum communication research, is likely to
trigger a global race.
"We heard Nasa is building a quantum line between
Los Angeles and San Francisco," said Prof Pan. "And IBM and Google
are both investing heavily."
However, Prof Pan and Prof Laflamme said the development
of the quantum system still required a great deal of work. Photons can only
travel for a short distance, which means the new Beijing to Shanghai line will
include 20 nodes, each of which is vulnerable to hackers. And the rate of
transmitting keys remains slow.
"At the moment, it is only useful for a large user,
like a government,” said Prof Pan.
Additional reporting by Tang Ailin
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