Quantum cryptography is hacked

News@Nature: A team of researchers has, for the first time, hacked into a network protected by quantum encryption says Nature's Geoff Brumfiel. Quantum cryptography uses the laws of quantum mechanics to encode data securely and most researchers consider such quantum networks to be nearly 100% uncrackable. But, by using a "quantum-mechanical wiretap," a group from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were able to 'listen in'. The trick allowed them to tease out about half of the data, in a way that couldn't be detected by those transmitting or receiving the message. The group admits that their hack isn't yet capable of eavesdropping on a real network. "It is not something that currently could attack a commercial system," says Jeffrey Shapiro, a physicist at MIT and one of the authors on the study. But they expect that one day it will be able to do so, if quantum encryption isn't adequately adapted to stop such hackers from succeeding.