credit card secured from forgery via quantum physics

Secured credit cards forgery by quantum physics
Credit cards and vouchers are to be made in future to forge. For it to provide technologies of quantum physics, which are developed by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology.

Today, the theft of credit card data or copying of magnetic strips on ATM are common variants with which people will ultimately account emptied. On the other hand, the nature, like physicist Stephen Wiesner showed up in 1983, provides means to prevent this danger: According to the rules of quantum physics, it is impossible in principle, quantum information to copy exactly.



The difficulty of a practical use of this effect, however, lies in the sensitivity of the carrier of the quantum information. While printed on a credit card or bill numbers are not damaged so quickly, their quantum mechanical counterparts are rapidly affected by noise, decoherence or incorrect operation. The requirements for the authenticity check must therefore be lowered.

The researchers have now testing protocols designed to tolerate errors to some extent, while guaranteeing high safety. Accordingly, also the certification process for these protocols, a certain degree of imperfection of the tested quantum accepted. This softening of the requirements for proof of authenticity, however, increases the chance for a scam.

The researchers, therefore, a result of a tolerance level that allow a certain degree of inaccuracy yet to guarantee maximum safety. As Fernando Pastawski who treated this subject as part of his PhD thesis found, include two types of protocols such tolerance. In the first protocol, the quantum information to be physically returned to the attestor confirming its validity directly. This, however, only one-time vouchers are developed.

The second approach has to prove the owner of the authenticity of the voucher by answering certain test questions. The research group has developed a scheme in which quantum information is organized in blocks of two quantum bits. Such a test question itself reveals no information required by the owner to use, for the measurement of each block has a specific basis.

Since the measurement in quantum Voucher stored information is destroyed is possible that a dishonest cheater might take the answer further, complementary questions about the course. As with the previous approach by the level of tolerance is determined how many correct answers for proof of authenticity of the coupon required.