In a major step towards securing India's strategic communication networks against future cyber threats, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully completed military field trials of an indigenous Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) system.
The fibre-based QKD system, developed by DRDO in collaboration with Taqbit Labs, Bengaluru, is designed to provide highly secure communication for critical military and strategic networks. Building on earlier laboratory demonstrations and previous trials, the technology has now been successfully developed into a deployable system for military applications.
“This milestone successfully lays the foundation for a large-scale, multi-hop quantum networks that is indigenously designed and can seamlessly safeguard national communication infrastructure against emerging cyber threats in the quantum era,” the DRDO said in a statement.
The key advantage of Quantum Key Distribution lies in the way it secures communication. Unlike conventional encryption systems that rely on complex mathematical algorithms, quantum communication is based on the laws of quantum mechanics, making it more secure.
According to ISRO, QKD forms the foundation of quantum communication technology and offers unconditional data security. This is not something that conventional encryption systems can guarantee. Since its security is based on the laws of physics rather than computational complexity, it is regarded as "future-proof", as advances in computing power are not expected to compromise quantum cryptographic systems.
DRDO had earlier said its system uses quantum entanglement-based QKD, which offers enhanced security compared to traditional prepare-and-measure methods. Even if communication devices are compromised or imperfect, the entanglement of photons ensures that any attempt to intercept or measure the transmitted information disturbs the quantum state, immediately alerting authorised users to the presence of an eavesdropper.
This ability to detect interception makes the technology particularly valuable for protecting sensitive communications.
According to DRDO, quantum communication provides fundamentally unbreakable encryption, making it a dual-use technology with applications in sectors such as defence, finance and telecommunications, while also protecting communications related to national security.
