10.4. Quantum Cryptography

Research into new ways of performing cryptography continues. We have seen how researchers have relied on aspects of mathematics to generate hard problems and to devise algorithms. In this section, we look at an alternative view of how cryptography may be done in the future. The approach we describe is not now on the market, nor is it likely to be so in the next few years. But it illustrates the need for creative thinking in inventing new encryption techniques. Although the science behind this approach is very difficult, the approach itself is really quite simple.

The novel approach, quantum cryptography, is in a way a variant of the idea behind a one-time pad. Remember from Chapter 2 that the one-time pad is the only ...

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