(MENAFN- Colombo Gazette) As malicious hackers mount ever more sophisticated attacks, China is about to launch a new, "unhackable" communications network - at least in the sense that any attack on it would be quickly detected.
The technology it has turned to is quantum cryptography, a radical break from the traditional encryption methods around. The Chinese project in the city of Jinan has been touted as a milestone by state media.
The pioneering project is also part of a bigger story: China is taking the lead in a technology in which the West has long been hesitant to invest.
In the Jinan network, some 200 users from the military, government, finance and electricity sectors will be able to send messages safe in the knowledge that only they are reading them.
China's push in quantum communication means the country is taking huge strides developing applications that might make the increasingly vulnerable internet more secure. Applications that other countries soon might find themselves buying from China.
So, what is this technology into which the country is pouring massive resources?
If you send a message you want to keep secure from eavesdroppers, traditional encryption works by hiding the key needed to read the message in a very difficult mathematical problem.
But what is "difficult" in terms of maths? It means you have to think really fast to figure it out as you try endless combinations of long, numeric keys. In 2017, that means you need to use a very powerful computer.
Steady improvements in computer power mean that the number-based keys have to be lengthened periodically. Encryption has a shelf life and is rapidly becoming more vulnerable.
There are also fears that the development of quantum computers, which effectively represent a massive step change in number crunching ability, will render much of modern encryption software vulnerable.
The crucial advantage of this so-called quantum key distribution is that if anyone tries to intercept the light particles, they necessarily alter or destroy them.
What this means is that any attempt at hacking will immediately be noticed by the original sender and the intended receiver - hence its description as "unhackable".
If quantum communication can help to secure online communications, why is China so far ahead?
"For a long time people simply didn't think it was needed," says Prof Myungshik Kim of Imperial College, London, adding that it was not clear whether there was a commercial market for this technology.
"The mathematical difficulty of the current coding system was so high that it was not thought necessary to implement the new technology," he says.
The research itself is not new and China does not have an edge over the competition. Where it does have an advantage is when it comes to applications.
"Europe has simply missed the boat," says Prof Anton Zeilinger, a quantum physicist at Vienna University in Austria and a pioneer in the field.
He says he tried to convince the EU as early as 2004 to fund more quantum-based projects but it had little effect.
"Europe has been dragging its feet and this has hindered us from being able to compete," he says.
There are quantum key-based networks operating in the US and Europe but most are being carried out as research projects, rather than with commercial partners. (Courtesy BBC)
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