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International Conference on Quantum Comunication and Quantum Networking

QuantumComm 2009: Quantum Communication and Quantum Networking pp 283–296Cite as

The Case for Quantum Key Distribution

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Abstract

Quantum key distribution (QKD) promises secure key agreement by using quantum mechanical systems. We argue that QKD will be an important part of future cryptographic infrastructures. It can provide long-term confidentiality for encrypted information without reliance on computational assumptions. Although QKD still requires authentication to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, it can make use of either information-theoretically secure symmetric key authentication or computationally secure public key authentication: even when using public key authentication, we argue that QKD still offers stronger security than classical key agreement.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Information Security Institute, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

    Douglas Stebila

  2. Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Michele Mosca & Norbert Lütkenhaus

  3. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Michele Mosca

Authors
  1. Douglas Stebila
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  2. Michele Mosca
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  3. Norbert Lütkenhaus
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Department of Physics, Boston University, 8 Saint Mary’ s Street, 02215-2421, Boston, MA, USA

    Alexander Sergienko

  2. Dipartimento di Fisica, Unversity di Bari, 70126, Bari, Italy

    Saverio Pascazio

  3. Department of Information Engineering, CNR-INFM LUXOR Laboratory for Ultravilolet and X-Ray Optical Search, University of Padova, via Gradenico 6, 35131, Padova, Italy

    Paolo Villoresi

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© 2010 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

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Stebila, D., Mosca, M., Lütkenhaus, N. (2010). The Case for Quantum Key Distribution. In: Sergienko, A., Pascazio, S., Villoresi, P. (eds) Quantum Communication and Quantum Networking. QuantumComm 2009. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 36. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11731-2_35

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11731-2_35

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-11730-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-11731-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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