According to reports today scientists from the QinetiQ organisation have managed to send a key for encryption just under 15 miles (a new record), opening the door for security of an unparalleled level in the future.
One of the company's employees has told Reuters: "This is the only way to distribute keys for encoding data in absolute security without actually sending a guy with a briefcase".
The quantum cryptography keys were sent using photons of light, and when one of these photons has been received its state changes to reflect this – and this change can be seen as an indicator by the intended recipient of the key so they can tell whether it has been intercepted.
According to the spokesman from QinetiQ "It is quite a technical challenge to point a beam of this sort of low-intensity light over long distances. The great technical challenge is to try to do it between moving things like a satellite". The system is initially aimed at organisations like governments but when the process becomes more developed it could be the security solution the Internet generation has been seeking.
News source: Reuters UK
