GSN March 2016 Digital Edition

Whitewood Encryption Systems announces
awarding of third patent arising from Los Alamos
National Laboratory technology transfer
• The new patent addresses the critical need to share cryptographic keys
over untrusted optical networks and embodies inventions that increase
operating distance and simplify deployment.
• This is the company’s third patent that focuses on the long-range requirement
of establishing security systems that can remain secure even
with the arrival of ultra-high performance quantum computers.
• Whitewood’s IP portfolio and related commercialization efforts illustrate
the effectiveness of a public-private partnership in technology transfer
that can stimulate innovation to the benefit of the broader U.S. economy.
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Whitewood Encryption Systems,
Inc., a provider of crypto-security
solutions, is pleased to announce
Allowance for a patent application
that addresses important practical
issues that arise when employing
quantum communications techniques
to share cryptographic key
material over fiber optic networks.
The patent application, which is
entitled, “Great Circle Solution to
-
describes an advanced method for
correcting the unwanted polarization
effects that are encountered
in today’s optical fiber networks.
This enables the parties wishing to
perform secure key exchanges to
operate over longer distances and
to be less susceptible to signal degradation.
The use of the quantum
mechanical properties of photons
to share secret keys in a way that is
fundamentally resistant to eavesdropping
or man-in–the-middle attacks
has been widely demonstrated
in the lab, but practical limitations
such as optical distortion have severely
limited the number of commercial
deployments. Future products
that embody this patent would
help to address some of those limitations.
The inventors named on the patent
include Jane Nordholt and Richard
Hughes, who co-founded and
co-led the Quantum Communications
team at Los Alamos National
Laboratory in New Mexico for nearly
two decades before retiring, and
who are now consulting physicists
for Whitewood. Their co-inventors
are Raymond Newell and Charles
researchers at Los Alamos and continue
to support Whitewood product
development activities.
This patent forms part of a portfolio
of intellectual property exclusively
licensed by Whitewood
to commercialize quantum-based
technologies to address the current
and future needs for secure cryptography.
Last year, the same group
of scientists was awarded a patent
that allowed for the miniaturization
of quantum-based key distribution
technology for use on existing optical
fiber networks and from satellite
received a patent for a technology
that dramatically increased the scalability
of multi-node networks that
employ quantum-based key management
techniques.
“It is clear that the unique attributes
of quantum mechanics can
have a direct benefit on security