Bug-resistant: Russian new ‘quantum phone’ promises ‘unmatched’ security

Russian scientists have taken secure communication to the next level after presenting Russia’s first phone with quantum protection of connection. The price per set bites but the innovative gadget promises perfect security.

The IP phone demonstrated at the presentation on Tuesday looked like an ordinary landline machine, but it employs quantum encryption protocols which make the phone impossible to bug.

The quantum encryption uses photons to generate a shared key between two collocutors. A potential eavesdropper would need to measure photons to hear the conversation. However, the nature of photons doesn’t allow somebody to measure them without changing their state, thus the collocutors will always know if a call is bugged. This provides an “unmatched level of confidentiality,” the developers said.

Russian security company “Infoteks” and the Moscow State University’s Centre for quantum research, creators of “the quantum phone”, say it connects within 20 kilometers. The price per set, which includes two phones and a server, is also high, around $460mn, but the developers hope to sell it to some big corporations and state organizations, and are already eyeing Russia’s largest bank Sberbank as one of the potential clients.

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