Researchers in the Netherlands are applying quantum physics in an attempt to create fraud-proof credit cards and ID cards.
The approach, which they call Quantum-Secure Authentication (QSA), centers on single particles of light, or photons, and their ability to encode data so that attackers cannot determine what the information is. It exploits a property of photons that allows them to effectively be in multiple places at once, a phenomenon described in quantum physics.
“Quantum-physical principles forbid an attacker to fully characterize the incident light pulse,” the researchers wrote in an article in the journal Optica. “Therefore, he cannot emulate the key by digitally constructing the expected optical response, even if all information about the key is publicly known.”