The European Union will invest $13 million over the next four years to develop a secure communication system based on quantum cryptography, using physical laws governing the universe on the smallest scale to create and distribute unbreakable encryption keys, project coordinators say.

If successful, the project will produce the cryptographer's holy grail--absolutely unbreakable code--and thwart the eavesdropping efforts of espionage systems such as Echelon, which intercepts electronic messages on behalf of the intelligence services of the United States, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

By Philip Willan at PC World.

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