China Launching First-Ever Quantum Comms Satellite to Protect Data

China will soon launch the world’s first quantum communication satellite in space, when the rocket takes off in July. The satellite is specifically developed to help securely send and receive data by achieving quantum communication between space and earth.

Dwayne Melancon, CTO and VP, Research & Development at Tripwire discusses whether this is a good idea:

This is an interesting concept, but I think it is more of a novelty than a practical solution to the eavesdropping problem. There is a high likelihood that this satellite link will ultimately be connected to a terrestrial network, in which case the game is over. They may be able to keep it “air gapped” for a period of time to prevent cross-contamination of networks, but I think the limited utility of such an isolated network will ultimately cause China to make decisions that will result in a less secure communication link.

Furthermore, this network still incorporates the ultimate weakness of any system: humans will use this secure network. That means attackers will likely get what they want by taking advantage of human factors if they find the technological factors too difficult to overcome.