In Sweden, the decision was made to protect their digital ballots with quantum cryptography. This is very interesting for a couple of reasons: first, quantum cryptography is known to be the strongest from of cryptography possible and second, seeing that it will be used for these ballots ensures that this level of encryption will probably start being used more frequently in other avenues.  Let’s hope so, for migrating to quantum cryptography would sure make communications a lot more safer than they are today.

October 11, 2007 (Network World) — Swiss officials are using quantum cryptography technology to protect voting ballots cast in the Geneva region of Switzerland during parliamentary elections to be held Oct. 21, marking the first time this type of advanced encryption will be used for election protection purposes.

Still considered an area of advanced research, quantum cryptography uses photons to carry encryption keys to secure communications over fiber-optic lines and can automatically detect if anyone is trying to eavesdrop on a communications stream. For the Swiss ballot-collection process, the quantum cryptography system made by id Quantique will be used to secure the link between the central ballot-counting station in downtown Geneva and a government data center in the suburbs.

“We would like to provide optimal security conditions for the work of counting the ballots,” said Robert Hensler, the Geneva State Chancellor, in a statement issued today. “In this context, the value added by quantum cryptography concerns not so much protection from outside attempts to interfere as the ability to verify that the data have not been corrupted in transit between entry and storage.”[more]

Tags: Encryption