Dr. Laszlo Kish, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University is featured in a front page article at New Scientist Tech for his work in secure communication. Kish is also a researcher in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Division of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), the engineering research agency of Texas and a member of The Texas A&M University System. The article, "Noise keeps spooks out of the loop," is about Kish’s novel method of encrypting messages he proposed that uses the natural thermal noise created by resistors. Kish proposed that a simple pair of resistors on the ends of a communications wire such as a phone or computer line could keep eavesdroppers from intercepting secret messages. He created a cipher device, which he first proposed in 2005, that exploits a property called thermal noise. Thermal noise is generated by the natural agitation of electrons within a conductor, which happens regardless of any voltage passed through it. But it does change depending on the conductor’s resistance. Kish said in the article that the thermal properties of a simple wire can be exploited to create a secure communications channel, one that outperforms quantum cryptography keys. Read the article to learn more about Kish’s device.
