Quantum encryption is a thing, fast enough for phone calls

Quantum encryption is the wish of most in the security industry as you can't even look at the data without making changes to it, but using quantum encryption - until now - was always slower than traditional methods.

Not for long, as researchers have made a new quantum encryption key distribution system that is between 5-10x faster than previous methods, and can keep up with conventional encryption when run side-by-side. How did they do it? By getting more data into each photon.

Engadget reports "Normally, you can only encode one bit per photon by using a weak laser. The team discovered that it could encode two bits by tweaking the release time of photons and using high-speed photon detectors to track these changes. Effectively, they're giving photons properties they couldn't have before". Crazy stuff, isn't it?