Ultra-Secure Satellite

The ever-growing array of communication satellites is a hotbed for hacking and jamming between the world’s superpowers. But Chinese scientists may have developed an unbreakable link between a satellite and earth using a “secret key” for encoding and decoding data.

The technique uses something familiar to TFN readers known as quantum entanglement – a property that enables two photons to be instantaneously linked even if they are separated by a great distance. Furthermore, the particles cannot be read without changing their content, making them inherently un-hackable.

Although earlier tests have demonstrated the potential for quantum satellite communications, this most recent work shows an unprecedented level of efficiency that places China a few years ahead of the rest of the world.