Towards Covert and Secret Quantum Networks
ECE 595 Department Seminar Series
October 31, 2019
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Towards Covert and Secret Quantum Networks
Presenter: Matthieu Bloch is an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his engineering degree from Supélec, Gif-sur-Yvette, France, his Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2003, his PhD in engineering science from the Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France in 2006, and his PhD in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2008. In 2008-2009, he was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Notre Dame. Since July 2009, Bloch has served on the faculty of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, and from 2009 to 2013 he was based at Georgia Tech Lorraine. His research interests are in the areas of information theory, error-control coding, wireless communications, and cryptography. Bloch has served on the organizing committee of several international conferences; he was the chair of the Online Committee of the IEEE Information Theory Society from 2011 to 2014, an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Information from 2016 to 2019, and he has been on the Board of Governors of the IEEE Information Theory Society. He has been an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security since 2016. He is the co-recipient of the IEEE Communications Society and IEEE Information Theory Society 2011 Joint Paper Award, and the co-author of the textbook Physical-Layer Security: From Information Theory to Security Engineering, published by Cambridge University Press.
Abstract: Despite steady progress in “post-quantum” cryptography, quantum-secured communication, especially in the form of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), remains to date the only unconditionally secure technology to distribute secret keys. Quantum communication has effectively “leaped out of the lab” as most recently demonstrated in January 2018 with the deployment of a satellite-relayed intercontinental quantum network between China and Austria, leveraging the unique possibilities offered by the Micius quantum communication satellite.
In this talk, the possibility of deploying quantum key distribution that are also covert, in the sense of being provable undetectable by an adversary, will be discussed. While covert key generation over quantum channels is not possible under the same assumptions as QKD, it will be demonstrated, perhaps surprisingly, that covert secret key generation is possible under mild assumptions regarding the quantum channels. In particular, a more nuanced perspective regarding the impossibility of covert key expansion in covert quantum key distribution will be provided. Time permitting, the construction of reconciliation algorithms for covert secret key generation, where the main challenge is to efficiently process the diffuse information that is embedded in covert signals, will be discussed. Astute signaling and coding techniques enable one to "concentrate" the information and approach the information-theoretic performance with low-complexity will be demonstrated.
Faculty Host: Hulya Seferoglu, hulya@uic.edu
Date posted
Oct 30, 2019
Date updated
Oct 31, 2019