Quantum Information: Changing the Rules of the Game

Carl Miller, Mathematician, Cryptographic Technology Group; Fellow, Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS), University of Maryland

Each time I do a credit card transaction online, I am assuming that a certain cryptographic protocol will successfully hide my information well enough to prevent criminals from stealing my credit card number and going on a shopping spree. Assumptions like this can be “proved” in a sense, but those kinds of proofs are based on a foundation that may have to be revised over time because of developments in other fields. This is part of what makes information theory so challenging, and what makes it so much fun.