Limitations of Quantum & the Versatility of Classical Cryptography: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Cryptography in simple words is an ‘rt or science of protecting data’. But it’s an art which is yet to achieve perfection. The major challenge being faced by it is the intelligence and computational capability of the hacker. All these years the scientists have been working on increasing the computational complexity, but the recent concept of quantum cryptography has added a complete new dimension to this field. The strength of this cryptographic technique comes from the fact that no one can read (‘steal’) the information without altering its content. This alteration Alerts! the communicators about the possibility of a hacker and thus promising a highly secure data transfer. Due to this advantage, quantum cryptography has grasped a great deal of attention and huge amount of research is being carried out on it. But is quantum the ultimate solution to information security? Will classical cryptography persist? Are all those quantum theory practicable and are there methods for cracking quantum cryptography? All such questions have resulted into the making of this paper. This paper discusses in detail about the versatility of classical cryptography which ensures it an infinite future and the various limitations of quantum cryptography which detains it from becoming the ‘ultimate solution’. For example… The course of development of all future technologies are mostly directed towards the ‘wireless’, and quantum security for wireless networks is a serious question mark, whereas the classical side is completely independent of the medium of communication. Further, quantum cryptography doesn’t support digital signature (fully supported by classical cryptography) which is very vital when it comes to information or key exchange through a shared network. Another main problems faced by quantum cryptography is the transmission distance. It has not exceed 150Km, and most of the optic fibers which are in current use will attenuate a photon within a much lesser distance. This means a lot of practical problems. To overcome this scientist are working on ‘Quantum Repeaters’ which will serve as a booster for the quantum information. But this will return fire because the hackers can use the same tool as a weapon to steal the information without their presence being discovered thus breaking quantum’s main advantage. This new concept of quantum cryptography has come into light and it’s now time to decide for the researchers and the consumers as to where they put their money! The study helps solve this issue by bringing out the actual picture of the present developments in quantum and classical cryptography and also discusses in detail about what’s in store for the future in these two different cryptographic fields. We emphasis on the various advantages that classical cryptography holds over quantum cryptography and finally we prove that classical and quantum are not like the cassettes and CDs.