Australia awards quantum key contract

QuintessenceLabs has been awarded an Australian military contract to develop quantum key distribution, or QKD, for cybersecurity and communications security.

Under the AUD$3.26 million (U.S. $2.59 million) Australian Department of Defence contract, QuintessenceLabs will expand upon its commercial off-the-shelf QKD technology “to mature a sovereign Australian quantum key distribution solution,” according to a QuintessenceLabs news release.

“The security of QKD is based on a fundamental characteristic of quantum mechanics: The act of measuring a quantum system disturbs the system. Thus, an eavesdropper trying to intercept a quantum exchange will inevitably leave detectable traces, allowing the legitimate exchanging parties to discard the corrupted information,” QuintessenceLabs said. “Since it is protected by the laws of physics, this approach will remain invulnerable to increasing computational power, new attack algorithms or quantum computers.”

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