Photos: Snapshots from HP Labs
This is a cutting-edge security project set up to combat an anticipated threat from quantum
computers , which use quantum mechanical processes to perform operations--meaning they could break standard computer security code.
Although the threat is still theoretical, HP Labs is already looking at how to combat it.
The computer on the left represents an ATM, and the one on the right, a mobile device. Using photons, according to HP, the mobile device requests security codes that are then transmitted back to the phone. Researchers say that because of the way the codes are transmitted, quantum computers would not be able to break them.
