BGN Technologies, the technology-transfer company of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Israel, is introducing the first all-optical stealth encryption technology that will be significantly more secure and private for highly sensitive cloud-computing and data center network transmission.
Using standard optical equipment, the research team essentially renders the fiber-optic light transmission invisible or stealthy. Instead of using one color of the light spectrum to send one large data stream, this method spreads the transmission across many colors in the optical spectrum bandwidth (1,000 x wider than digital) and intentionally creates multiple weaker data streams that are hidden under noise and elude detection.
The researchers demonstrated that they can transmit weaker encrypted data under a stronger inherent noise level that cannot be detected.
The solution also employs a commercially available phase mask, which changes the phase of each wavelength (color). That process also appears as noise, which destroys the “coherence” or ability to recompile the data without the correct encryption key. The optical phase mask cannot be recorded offline, so the data is destroyed if a hacker tries to decode it.