Cryptography in a Quantum World
This addresses the foundational challenge of securing privacy in a quantum world, which is critical for all users of cryptographic systems, but it is incremental as it builds on existing quantum cryptography concepts without presenting new results.
The paper examines the impact of quantum mechanics on cryptography, exploring whether it enhances or threatens privacy protection, but concludes that the outcome remains uncertain.
Although practised as an art and science for ages, cryptography had to wait until the mid-twentieth century before Claude Shannon gave it a strong mathematical foundation. However, Shannon's approach was rooted is his own information theory, itself inspired by the classical physics of Newton and Einstein. But our world is ruled by the laws of quantum mechanics. When quantum-mechanical phenomena are taken into account, new vistas open up both for codemakers and codebreakers. Is quantum mechanics a blessing or a curse for the protection of privacy? As we shall see, the jury is still out!