Simulation of the Quantum Key Distribution Algorithm Using the Intel Quantum SDK
Yaknan John Gambo, Tejas Shinde, Kevin Rasch, Helena Liebelt, Rui Li · 2023
Information security is an important fabric of our world today. Technologies used in the development of information security have constantly been evolving in response to new threats. Cryptographic algorithms like the RSA, DSA, AES etc. are currently being used in securing information even over insecure channels. The coming of quantum computers has now posed a great threat to classical cryptosystems which can be broken in polynomial time thanks to Shor’s algorithm. A good hacker with good quantum computing power can break into encrypted messages easily. The Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) algorithm based on the BB84 protocol provides a solution to this problem. It makes it possible for communicating parties to exchange secret keys securely before a conversation can ensue. Verifying if these keys have been tampered with is a good first step to start before any other. QKD technology has made it possible to exchange these keys via an insecure channel and lets communicating parties know if an eavesdropper has tempered with the message. In this work, we discuss the QKD algorithm and simulated it on the newly released Intel quantum SDK.