LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In the 100-plus years since the concept of “perfect secrecy” in cryptography was first proposed in 1917, no organization has been able to implement perfect secrecy that can operate on classical communication networks, until now. Nature Communications recently published a paper from the Center for Unconventional Processes of Sciences (CUP Sciences) working with the University of St. Andrews and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) that details their working chip-based prototype of “perfect secrecy” and demonstrates that it is unbreakable, no matter how computational power evolves in the future.
Authors from the three institutions stated, “We have rigorously demonstrated a protocol for a perfect secrecy cryptography that uses CMOS-compatible silicon chips, which transmit information on a public classical optical network…Combined with the technological maturity, speed and scalability of classic optical communications, the results shown open a pathway towards implementing perfect secrecy cryptography at the global scale with contained costs.”
The “perfect secrecy-on-a-chip” technology was not developed with traditional engineering and is unbreakable under any condition. Using chaos theory and the second law of thermodynamics, the chip transmits and measures signals at the speed of light and has an almost unlimited capacity of generating signals for each communication.
In traditional hacking, the objective is to obtain the key, which with enough time and effort can be obtained, providing access to the communication. Keys generated by the “perfect secrecy” chip, which unlock each message, are never stored or communicated with the message and cannot be recreated, even by the users themselves. The silicon chips contain complex structures that are irreversibly changed for each communication, sending information in a one-time key that can never be intercepted by an attacker.
A review of the invention in Optics and Photonics News, published by the Optical Society of America (OSA), stated that “The eavesdropper, attempting to hack into the communication with complete knowledge of the system and using all of the same equipment, obtained only white noise in her decoded image.”
World-Class Team Behind the Invention
U.S.-based CUP Sciences is responsible for coordinating the next steps of development of the technology among the inventing institutions and for the commercialization of technologies resulting from it. The company was co-founded by co-inventor of the technology Dr. Aluizio M. Cruz, who brought the conceptual approach to the project, with the other institutions developing the theory, fabricating the technology, and testing it.
Dr. Cruz has been working with complexity for decades, since the age of 17. Prior to founding CUP Sciences, he worked as chief industrial engineer on large-scale multi-government projects in Japan and Europe. Over the years, he developed several inventions related to new concepts for data communication and energy. Together with co-founder, attorney and entrepreneur Quelita Moreno, he formed CUP Sciences to apply these inventions towards commercialization to address the challenging and critical issues of society, such as energy, water and pollution.
“We have successfully reimagined an entirely new way to develop technology, working in concert with the inherent principles operating in the laws of physics and randomness. Because of this, our technologies scale exponentially, rather than linearly, creating breakthroughs in efficiencies of energy and cost,” said Dr. Cruz.
“With the advent of more powerful quantum computers, all current encryptions will be broken in very short time, exposing the privacy of our present and, more importantly, past communications, unless we think differently,” says Andrea Fratalocchi, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at KAUST, and leader of the study.
“Our solution can protect communications exchanged by users separated by any distance and is based on a mature and fully scalable technology which is ready to deploy,” said Professor Andrea Di Falco of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St. Andrews, first author of the study.
Company’s First Technology Focused on Cybersecurity
A recent report by Cybersecurity Ventures estimates that global damages from cybercrime will rise to $6 trillion annually by 2021. To address this, CUP Sciences’ first technology is focused on security, anticipating applications ranging from the financial industry, protecting ecommerce and banking, to energy, supporting smart grids and cities.
“Our microchip providing ‘perfect secrecy’ will be the first of a host of complexity-based technologies that we will move toward commercialization, validating our disruptive approach,” said Ms. Moreno. "CUP Sciences’ partner, PERA Complexity, will contribute with go-to-market strategy and commercialization. We look forward to identifying additional partners and investors who will work with us to bring this and other important technologies to the world.”
If you are interested in getting involved in the development and commercialization of CUP Sciences’ technologies, please contact the company at ac.qm@cupsciences.net.
About CUP Sciences
Los Angeles-based CUP Sciences is pioneering the commercialization of an entirely new field of hardware-based, software-embedded technologies based on complexity that address critical global challenges of sustainable development. The company’s upcoming technologies will be new concepts for clean energy generation and storage, and carbon reduction with the potential to revolutionize the clean energy sector, and are expected to create dramatic efficiencies and cost savings over traditional technologies.