Atomic-Based Technology Can Embed Unique, Unbreakable Security in Any Device

The increased use of mobile devices for business applications and the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) is making device security top of mind for security researchers. But device security is currently based on methods like passwords and encryption, which are easy to break.

Now a group of physicists in the United Kingdom have developed a unique way to create an unbreakable ID for a device that’s based on atoms and uses nano-technology, providing what they said is unprecedented security for devices.

The technology, called Q-ID and developed at Lancaster University, is being commercialized by a university spin-off company called Quantum Base. The technology would preclude the use of a password or some other typical security for a device, instead replacing it with atomic-scale imperfections that are impossible to clone, researchers said.

“The invention involves the creation of devices with unique identities on a nano-scale employing state-of-the-art quantum technology,” Jonathan Roberts, a Lancaster University physics PhD student and first author on a paper the researchers published about the technology in the journal Nature’s Scientific Reports, said in an article on the university website. “Each device we’ve made is unique, 100 percent secure and impossible to copy or clone.”

Current device authentication solutions include anti-counterfeit tags or password protection, which are based on replication difficulty or on secrecy, but these methods are notoriously insecure and easy to hack into or forge, researchers said.

Q-ID atomic-scale devices, on the other hand, don’t require passwords, and can’t be cloned, making their security second to none, according to Roberts and his team.

“Simulating these structures requires vast computing power and is not achievable in a reasonable timescale, even with a quantum computer,” researchers wrote in the Nature’s Scientific Reports paper. “When coupled with the fact that the underlying structure is unknown, unless dismantled atom-by-atom, this makes simulation extremely difficult.”

Another bonus of the technology is that it would not be expensive to fabricate on a large scale, researchers said. The Q-ID device can be integrated into existing chip-manufacturing processes, which would allow for cost-effective mass production.

Other additional features that could be included in the device for enhanced security include the ability to track and trace a product throughout the supply chain, and individual addressability, which would allow for marketing and quality control at the point of consumption, researchers said.

“One could imagine our devices being used to identify a broad range of products, whether it is authentication of branded goods, SIM cards, important manufacturing components–the possibilities are endless,” said Robert Young, research leader at Lancaster University and co-founder of Quantum Base, in the article.