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Quantum Key Distribution: Boon or Bust?

Published in Journal of Cyber Security and Information Systems
Volume: 4 Number: 2 - Basic Complexity
Authors: Logan O. Mailloux, Dr. Michael R. Grimaila, Douglas D. Hodson, Colin V. McLaughlin and Gerald B. Baumgartner
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Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is an emerging cybersecurity technology which provides the means for two geographically separated parties to grow “unconditionally secure” symmetric cryptographic keying material. Unlike traditional key distribution techniques, the security of QKD rests on the laws of quantum mechanics and not computational complexity. This unique aspect of QKD is due to the fact that any unauthorized eavesdropping on the key distribution channel necessarily introduces detectable errors (Gisin, Ribordy, Tittel, & Zbinden, 2002). This attribute makes QKD desirable for high-security environments such as banking, government, and military applications. However, QKD is a nascent technology where implementation non-idealities can negatively impact system performance and security (Mailloux, Grimaila, Hodson, Baumgartner, & McLaughlin, 2015). While the QKD community is making progress towards the viability of QKD solutions, it is clear that more work is required to quantify the impact of such non-idealities in real-world QKD systems (Scarani & Kurtsiefer, 2009).

Written for security practitioners, managers, and decision makers, this article provides an accessible introduction to QKD and describes this seemingly strange quantum communications protocol in readily understandable terms. Additionally, this article highlights recent developments in the field from the 5th international Quantum Cryptography conference (QCrypt) hosted in fall of 2015 with an eye towards the US hosted conference in 2016. Lastly, we comment on several of QKD’s advantages (i.e., the boon) and its drawbacks (i.e., the bust) while also considering QKD’s viability as a cybersecurity technology.

Authors

Logan O. Mailloux
Logan O. Mailloux
Logan O Mailloux, CISSP, CSEP (BS 2002, MS 2008, PhD 2015) is a commissioned officer in the United States Air Force and Assistant Professor at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, USA. His research interests include system security engineering, complex information communication and technology implementations, and quantum key distribution systems. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, INCOSE, the ACM, and IEEE.
Dr. Michael R. Grimaila
Dr. Michael R. Grimaila
Michael R Grimaila, CISM, CISSP (BS 1993, MS 1995, PhD 1999, Texas A&M University) is Professor and Head of the Systems Engineering department and member of the Center for Cyberspace Research (CCR) at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, USA. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, the ACM, a Senior Member of the IEEE, and a Fellow of the ISSA. His research interests include computer engineering, mission assurance, quantum communications and cryptography, data analytics, network management and security, and systems engineering.
Douglas D. Hodson
Douglas D. Hodson
Douglas D Hodson (BS 1985, MS 1987, PhD 2009) is an Assistant Professor of Software Engineering at the AFIT, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, USA. His research interests include computer engineering, software engineering, real-time distributed simulation, and quantum communications. He is also a DAGSI scholar and a member of Tau Beta Pi.
Colin V. McLaughlin
Colin V. McLaughlin
Colin V McLaughlin, PhD (BA 2003, PhD 2010) is a Research Physicist at the United States Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C., USA. He specializes in photonic communication devices and systems.
Gerald B. Baumgartner
Gerald B. Baumgartner
Gerald B. Baumgartner, PhD (BS 1971, MS 1973, PhD 1980, Illinois Institute of Technology) is a Research Physicist at the Laboratory for Telecommunications Sciences, College Park, Maryland, USA. He is a member of the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Dr Baumgartner’s research interests include quantum optics, quantum communications, quantum information, communications security, communications system modeling and simulation and statistical signal processing.

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