_{The future will see Quantum Key Distribution used in mobile technology to enable secure communications}

_{Press release issued: 3 April 2014}

An ultra-high security scheme that could one day get quantum cryptography using Quantum Key Distribution into mobile devices has been developed and demonstrated by researchers from the University of Bristol’s Centre for Quantum Photonics (CQP) in collaboration with Nokia.Secure mobile communications underpin our society and through mobile phones, tablets and laptops we have become online consumers.  The security of mobile transactions is obscure to most people but is absolutely essential if we are to stay protected from malicious online attacks, fraud and theft.

Currently available quantum cryptography technology is bulky, expensive and limited to fixed physical locations – often server rooms in a bank.  The team at Bristol has shown how it is possible to reduce these bulky and expensive resources so that a client requires only the integration of an optical chip into a mobile handset.

The scheme relies on the breakthrough protocol developed by  CQP research fellow Dr Anthony Laing, and colleagues, which allows the robust exchange of quantum information through an unstable environment.  The research is published in the latest issue of Physical Review Letters.

The article, which has also been publicised in the Daily Mail further explains the collaboration between CQP and Nokia and the hope that one day this technology will make communications completely un-hackable.