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At last! Unbreakable Encryption. · Mark and Pete

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  At last, unbreakable encryption. Welcome to Mark and Pete, where
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  we're going to look at something that seems like it must be
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  science fiction. This is Mark and Pete 2 blokes
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  with heart and opinion. Now here's our first thought.
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  Securing an award If you've won an award called Turing, after
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  years of enduring and maturing you where unbreakable encryption
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  is securing, then the achievement is reassuring.
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  Yes, quite extraordinary. The US physicist and a Canadian
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  commuter scientists have won this year's Turing Award for
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  their invention of a form of seemingly unbreakable
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  encryption. Charles H Bennett and Giles
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  Broussard's work, which dates back remarkably to 1984, is
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  known as quantum cryptography, and this has redefined secure
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  communications and computing. Mr. Pete, we all know that data
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  security is really important, but technology is moving fast.
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  Quantum computing in particular is something for the future.
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  Let me know your thoughts on this.
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  Is this now a game changer when it comes to data security?
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  Well, it is it, I mean, if this is really is unbreakable, this
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  makes all the difference. Because the big problem, the
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  issue that people have with, with use use of computers, with
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  on use of online cloud based technology, cloud based services
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  is this data breaches and, and, and it, it doesn't seem, it
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  seems almost as though every other day you hear of some
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  massive data breach with some big company who, who thought
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  they were safe. Yes, if you can have an
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  unbreakable encryption, then suddenly, as you say, it's a
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  game changer. It changes things.
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  I mean, for on an individual level, I, I think people who
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  aren't, who aren't really used to the Internet, who are not
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  happy because of this problem of security.
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  But when it comes, I mean, really, if you're talking about
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  being able to have unbreakable encryption, this will change the
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  way that companies can operate and maybe governments as well
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  with their need for high security.
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  So, yeah, I it, it, it's it, it does almost, as I said in the
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  intro, seem like science fiction.
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  What you mean it's impossible to break it?
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  Well, let's hope it's not a fiction, but it because it would
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  be a game changer. Well, indeed.
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  Now the Turing Award, which is named of course after the
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  mathematician the great on Alan Turing, is known as the like the
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  Nobel Prize of of computing. Now it comes with a big prize as
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  well. It's $1 million.
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  That's £800,000. Now, I will say that of course,
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  it's not necessarily the prize per SE, but it's the recognition
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  and the accolade that comes with it.
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  Bennett is 82 and Broussard is 70, both of which of course,
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  been working on this for many, many years.
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  And I will say that any kind of breakthrough, any innovation is
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  really something that I think, you know, we should all really
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  glorify and we should definitely praise.
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  Because the fact is, is that we're in a world now where data
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  is so crucial. Now, current encryption
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  technologies rely on a complex mathematical combination.
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  Now, of course, the actual binary coding in which we've
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  seen computers blossom over the last 40-50 years is something
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  that we should all be proud of. But of course, data security
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  with the, you know, more assets out there, the threat landscape
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  gets even bigger and bigger and bigger.
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  Quantum computing works on a totally different level, working
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  on the principle of qubits. And we won't go into the science
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  of it all now, but the fact is it's it's much more complex in
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  the way in which it actually builds its technology.
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  And if it can be robust, it meaning that your data, your
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  company's data, anybody's data and any system, process and
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  organization can be secure. This is a good thing.
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  Now we should put this in context because of course,
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  obviously this is a great breakthrough, but hasn't been
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  rolled out in a mass production way.
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  We haven't seen this infiltrate into say for example, industry
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  yet. But but we really are starting
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  to see is something that really is going to be a game changer
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  for the future. So when we look back at, you
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  know, over time, I think that many people will be wondering,
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  you know, let's see whether they'll have their own quantum
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  computer in their own home. What's are you about that?
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  Yes, but I think that this is this is the way for because then
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  people will be more confident. I mean, I know there's a high
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  uptake of use of computer and the and the Internet and clouds
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  at to at a certain level, but people just for for good
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  reasons, don't trust it. So if you get to a position
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  where it can be trusted, that's great.
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  Just a note on the irony that it that Turing himself was famous
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  for famous for breaking encryption.
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  But that's that's fascinating that they've managed to get to
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  this level by by using a different method.
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  Of course, if you're using normal computing technology, as
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  you say, based fundamentally on a on a binary code, eventually
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  you're able to break it. But this greater complexity is
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  meant to make it such that you you cannot encrypt it.
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  It's just too complex. However, just a word of course
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  about if someone can be that clever using new technology and
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  new scientific breakthrough to to create something that's
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  unencryptable, someone else will come along and come up with new
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  technology that doesn't does manage to breakthrough, don't
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  you think? Well, I think that one of the
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  things that's interesting here is that Bennett's Brassard's
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  theory, which is actually known as BB8 four of course go back to
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  little bit of history here. But it shows that any attempt to
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  hack or copy their quantum encryption key changes though
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  the the very behaviourist elements and making it almost
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  impossible to do. Now I, I agree with you that
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  what you probably are thinking is is that surely there's a way
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  in which this, this could be hacked in some form.
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  Well. What I'm thinking is maybe,
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  maybe not yet, certainly I I don't know how to do, but I'm
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  just saying not maybe not yet, but at some point there will be.
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  But Oh yes, I mean, I'm sure that at some point that as
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  quantum technology develops, is anything really, you know,
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  unbreakable? Having said that, even having
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  said that, you know, even the best vault, you know, physical,
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  physical security can be broken in the end.
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  Well, indeed, now in fact, actually, the Association of
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  Computer Machinery, the body that awards the Turing Award,
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  praised their work as the pathway to towards securing
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  digital communications in the decades ahead.
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  Well, you know, these are our thoughts.
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  We think it's great. Maybe this could be the way
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  forward and we'll start to see it even in our own lifetime.
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  But our great listeners, let's unlock your thoughts and hack
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  into your opinions. What do you think about this
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  achievement?