Researchers from the Applied Physics Research Group (APhy) have demonstrated a groundbreaking encryption scheme that is based on chaos synchronization.
The researchers took the concept of a Vernam cipher to the next level. In a Vernam cipher (also known as a one-time-pad), the coding key is used only once, making it theoretically unbreakable. Specifically, what was shown is that not only such a key -seemingly resembling a random bit series- can be derived from a high-dimensional chaotic system, but also that it can be faithfully reproduced at a remote location without revealing to an eavesdropper any correlation to the originating system.
"We have shown, for the first time, that synchronization with correlation far below what is detectable with modern methods is experimentally feasible." one researcher commented.
Better yet, the scheme is readily implementable in both electronics and photonics.
This work, that presents a close collaboration between our own VUB researchers and colleagues from the Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos (IFISC) of the University of the Balearic Islands and Optque Nonlinéaire Théorique of the ULB, has recently been published in Scientific Reports.