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What I learnt about Quantum Cryptography

I asked chatgpt to give me some suggestions for tech topics I could write about. One suggestion was "The potential of quantum cryptography for secure communication". I had never heard about quantum cryptography before and my interest was piqued. I set out to see how much I could learn within a day and share what I learned on my blog.

Lets start with quantum computing. Quantum computing uses quantum bits (qubits) that can be both 0 and 1 at the same time. The power of quantum computing poses a threat to traditional cryptography thus researchers have started looking at quantum cryptography. Crypt means hidden and graphy means writing and together cryptography is hidden (or secure) writing. Quantum cryptography involves quantum entanglement and quantum key distribution. It is at an experimental stage and changing and some time before it becomes practice.

I dont get how some articles are saying it is unbreakable and I found out that there are ways to break it like intercepting and resending, trojan horse attacks and side channel attacks. But I did also read that attacks would have to be sophicated and researchers are already working on improving the technology to counter ways of breaking it.

I had a question that chatgpt gave me a contradictory answer to. What if my key is stolen? Then I found research on cryptography without keys. My learning also brought me to device independent quantum cryptography, mistrustful quantum cryptography, quantum coin flipping and position-based quantum cryptography. I dont believe in unbreakable. I think it is always going to be a race between security and hacking. This was a fun exercise for me but my brain hurts now. Was this topic new to you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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