Unhackable and safe quantum smartphone unveiled

Data protection and surveillance in the digital sphere are topics that raise minds time and time again. Often this involves a fear that private communications may be pursued by third parties. A new smartphone is now coming from China, which may help in this context.

It is called “Tianyi No 1 2022” and is said to be equipped with a quantum-secured cipher module and a specially designed SIM card that can encrypt and decrypt voice calls on the phone using quantum key exchange. Unusual smartphone publishers are the country’s largest telecom provider, China Telecom, and startup QuantumCTeck, which entered into a business collaboration in 2021.

The technology behind the ‘quantum phone’

Chinese scientists, some of whom were part of the founding team of QuantumCTeck, are said to have tested quantum key exchange with the world’s first quantum satellite Micius, launched in August 2016. Unlike traditional cryptography, the technology uses single photons in quantum superposition states. Which includes the key to ensure unconditional security between remote parties.

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Quantum superposition is a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics, which states that, similar to waves in classical physics, any two or more quantum states can be added together. So the connection cannot be hacked, because any attempt to intercept the key will be instantly known to both the intended sender and receiver.

“When a user initiates a quantum secure conversation, a secret key is randomly generated to verify their identity,” explains Zhang Rutong, an engineer at QuantumCTeck. “After verification, the quantum network generates a new key in real time to encrypt the audio data,” Zhang Rutong added. This key is randomly generated, difficult to crack and must be discarded immediately upon a call. The service is then available when both the sender and receiver use the phone on a quantitative basis.

Source: via china daily