Diamonds create 'unhackable' code
Researchers at Melbourne University are growing diamond particles on optical fibres to transmit information they say will be impossible to hack.
The diamonds, just 1/1000 of a millimetre in size, send information through a single photon of light instead of the billions of photons found in an ordinary light beam.
Research fellow James Rabeau compares the technology to flicking a torch to send a message to a friend across a room. Light from the torch can be seen by others in the room, because there are billions of photons, and the message can be de-coded.
But if the light was a single photon beam, others in the room could not see it, and the two friends would also know instantly if it had been intercepted.
"If it's intercepted, no useable information is gleaned," Dr Rabeau said.
At the moment, when information is sent electronically, such as credit card details, it is encrypted and then decoded at the other end, but the information can be stolen along the way.
