http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0509136
Totally Secure Classical Communication Utilizing Johnson (-like) Noise
and Kirchoff's Law
Authors: Laszlo B. Kish
Comments: 14 pages; Google search terms: +totally +secure +communication
Subj-class: General Physics
Journal-ref: Manuscript featured by Science, vol. 309, p. 2148 (2005,
September 30)
An absolutely secure, fast, inexpensive, robust, maintenance-free
and low-power- consumption communication is proposed. The states of the
information bit are represented by two resistance values. The sender
and the receiver have such resistors available and they randomly select
and connect one of them to the channel at the beginning of each clock
period. The thermal noise voltage and current can be observed but
Kirchoff's law provides only a second-order equation. A secure bit is
communicated when the actual resistance values at the sender's side and
the receiver's side differ. Then the second order equation yields the
two resistance values but the eavesdropper is unable to determine the
actual locations of the resistors and to find out the state of the
sender's bit. The receiver knows that the sender has the inverse of his
bit, similarly to quantum entanglement. The eavesdropper can decode the
message if, for each bits, she inject current in the wire and measures
the voltage change and the current changes in the two directions.
However, in this way she gets discovered by the very first bit she
decodes. Instead of thermal noise, proper external noise generators
should be used when the communication is not aimed to be stealth.
--Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
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