IEEE Spectrum June 28, 2018
Nearly 140 years back Frank Miller proposed encrypting messages by shifting each letter in the message by a random number of places, resulting in a string of gibberish. And ever since, cryptographers have tried to devise a way to generate and distribute the unique and truly random numbers that the technique requires. This article reviews the various developments in random number generating research. Researchers have made good progress in recent years in developing technologies that can generate and distribute truly random numbers. By measuring the unpredictable attributes of subatomic particles, these devices can use the rules of quantum mechanics to encrypt messages… read more.
Illustration: Greg Mably