The science of cryptography has existed in one form or

another for centuries.

Cryptography is the art of encoding and decoding messages

for transmission between two

parties, while keeping the message secret from unwanted

viewers. There are many common

implementations of cryptography in use today such as the

HTTPS protocol on the Internet. All

forms of data encryption and cryptography require a key in

some form or another for use in

encoding and decoding data. There are even some modern

methods of encryption that have been

mathematically proven to be unbreakable if they are

implemented properly.

The inherent problem with any form of cryptography is in

the method of key distribution.

To date, all forms of message encryption have possessed

this major vulnerability. As such, it

makes no difference whether a secret message is sent via

homing pigeon, a radio transmission, a

penciled message on a notepad, or whispering to another,

there is no physical way to get a

cryptographic key to another without running the risk of

the key being intercepted.

To solve this dilemma, a radical solution has been proposed

called quantum

cryptography. This method essentially uses photon light

particles to send a key to an intended

recipient. The difference with this method of key

distribution is that it implements quantum

mechanic’s uncertainty principle as a means to guarantee

the privacy of a key during

distribution. Practically, quantum cryptography has the

ability to afford complete privacy during

the entire broadcast of an encoded message.