Scientists in Scotland help develop world’s first encryption system that is ‘unbreakable’ by hackers

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. But a global team, including scientists from the University of St Andrews, say they have achieved “perfect secrecy” by creating a chip which effectively generates a one-time-only key every time data is sent through it. “It’s the equivalent of standing talking to someone using two paper-cups attached by string,” said Professor Andrea Di Falco of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the university. “This new technique is absolutely unbreakable.” It works by storing digital information as light which is then passed through a specially engineered silicon chip containing structures which bend and refract that light, scrambling the information. Andrea Fratalocchi, leader of the study and associate professor at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, said: “With the advent of more powerful and quantum computers, all current encryptions will be broken in a very short time, exposing the privacy of our present and, more importantly, past communications.