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Network Encryption Newsletter - DECEMBER 2011
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NEWS Colt and ID Quantique provide managed Quantum Cryptography service for high-security network encryption in Switzerland Geneva, Switzerland, 13th December 2011 - Colt and ID Quantique SA (IDQ) have deployed a secure critical backbone link for financial institutions and enterprises in Geneva, Switzerland, based on ID Quantique’s world’s first Quantum Cryptography service. The Cerberis solution, which is used to encrypt the data transmitted between the Geneva metropolitan area and a remote disaster recovery data center located 70 km away, is based on IDQ’s innovative Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). QKD derives its security from the intrinsic and proven principles of quantum physics – that the quantum encryption keys are truly random, and that any interception or eavesdropping of the data will disturb the quantum system and can therefore be detected. This means that the system can verify whether data has been intercepted whilst inflight which ensures that the customer can be confident that their data remains secure. |
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 | PRODUCT AND SERVICES IDQ announced an OEM partnership with Certes Networks to bring a new family of encryptors to market under the ID Quantique brand name. The Arcis family of multi-layer products will allow IDQ to expand its product offering to include transparent network encryption of IPSec and MPLS networks, as well as to enter new markets. Certes Networks is the leading manufacturer of multi-layer variable speed encryption solutions. | |
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FROM THE LAB New risk for optical fiber links: data breaches can be passive It is already well-known to optical communications specialists that it is possible to extract a light signal from an optical fiber by introducing a slight bend in the fiber. Hackers can take advantage of this fact to intercept sensitive communications. Unfortunately such active attacks are not the only risks. According to Japanese researchers in the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology close to Tokyo, data breaches can happen even when there is no direct active manipulation of the optical fiber. In an article published in the Optics Express journal in October 2010 (read scientific article) they show evidence of a passive data leak between two parallel fibers located in the same cable. | |
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NEWS IDQ Celebrates its 10th Anniversary In October IDQ celebrated the 10th anniversary of its foundation in 2001. Over the past decade IDQ has demonstrated its leadership in the world of quantum cryptography – it is the only company worldwide to commercialise off-the-shelf QKD products for both scientific and commercial applications. “We are proud of our continuing innovation in both conventional and quantum-enabled encryption products, and we plan to maintain our leadership in the market thanks to ongoing research and development efforts with global partners, as well as the Group of Applied Physics at Geneva University”, said CEO and founder Grégoire Ribordy | |
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NEWS Swiss Scientists Prove Durability of Quantum Network Swiss scientists in collaboration with IDQ have proven the long-term effectiveness of quantum cryptography in a real telecommunications network. Published on 2 December in the New Journal of Physics, the researchers’ study documents the longest ever deployment of a quantum key distribution (QKD) network and demonstrates its robustness and reliability when coupled with a real-time telecommunications network. The international network ran for more than one-and-a-half years from the end of March 2009 to the beginning of January 2011. >> Link to New Journal of Physics article >> Link to Le Temps 3 December 2011 «La cryptographie quantique passe l’épreuve du temps » | |
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COMMENT Basel, Black Swans and Banking Security By Grégoire Ribordy & Kelly Richdale Basel III will have a significant impact on all aspects of the banking sector. Mandatory increases in the quality and amount of reserve capital are intended to spur banks to improve their underlying risk-management capabilities to avoid a recurrence of the banking crisis of 2008. It is logical for banks to push capital and market risk to their maximum limits, since these are “productive” risks which increase Return on Equity (ROE). On the other hand, as the costs of technical compliance with Basel III start to hit, there will be a temptation for banks start cutting costs in other areas, such as operations and security, in order to manage their balance sheets. However, this is not the time for banks to manage ROE through a corresponding increase in operational risk. |
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