SCIENTISTS IN CHINA have created a quantum smartphone that cannot be hacked. The phone comes with a built-in module and a special SIM card that can encrypt and decipher voice calls using “quantum key distribution”, Science Daily reported on Tuesday. A number of countries have been working on similar devices, but China’s looks like being the second one “ready” for the market, after South Korea’s Samsung, which has already released a model that contains a quantum key.
The new device, created for China Telecom, is called Tianyi number one. The firm set up a joint venture in 2021 with a startup called QuantumCTeck to develop quantum-based communication. The South Korea one is called the Samsung Galaxy Quantum.
How does it work? Matter, at the smallest level, exists in a quantum state and changes when someone or something interacts with it. If you put an encryption key into a quantum state, hackers cannot interact with it without changing it. Thus, even a supercomputer can’t work out the password.
Xinhua reports that telecom engineer Zhang Rutong said both callers must be using the quantum phones. So that’s going to double the number of sales straight away.