Security of the Decoy State Two-Way Quantum Key Distribution with Finite Resources

The quantum key distribution （QKD） allows two parties to share a secret key by typically making use of a one-way quantum channel. Howevery the two-way QKD has its own unique advantages, which means the two-way QKD has become a focus recently. To improve the practieM performance of the two-way QKD, we present a security analysis of a two-way QKD protocol based on the decoy method with heralded single-photon sources （HSPSs）. We make use of two approaches to calculate the yield and the quantum bit error rate of single-photon and two-photon pulses. Then we present the secret key generation rate based on the GLLP formula. The numerical simulation shows that the protocol with HSPSs has an advantage in the secure distance compared with weak coherent state sources. In addition, we present the final secret key by considering the statistical fluctuation of the yield generation rate of the LM05 protocol with finite resources and the error rate.

IT vs. State Security

Sparking a revolution in the running of national and global affairs, Information Technology (IT) progress has ushered in an age of knowledge economy or information society, the third one in history, following the first and second ages of agricultural and industrial economies. Globalization and the information revolution have been the pair of crucial intertwined moving forces behind global advances in the last quarter of the 20th century.

Rethinking National Security Strategies in Africa

The delivery of security to state and citizens will continue to be the daunting task facing nation states in Africa.Many African countries are becoming increasingly unable to deliver security to their citizens and in some instances;states themselves have become sources of insecurity.This is attributed less to the evolving security threats exacerbated by megatrends but more to the governance deficit manifested in weak social contract and strategic leadership that are short supply in many African countries.Despite a well-articulated security and defense policy of the African Union with a call for its member states to do the same,there is a dearth of national security strategies in most African states.This is largely attributed not only to the lack of effective implementation mechanisms of such policy but importantly to the absence of tools to help member states to craft and implement their national security strategies.There is a convincing wealth of evidence that shows a well-designed and inclusive process of developing national security strategies enables decision-makers to better confront the security threats and improve effective delivery of security to all citizens and state.Such a process provides an invaluable opportunity as well for forging a new social contract between state and its people.This article is an attempt to contribute to rethinking of how security could be perceived,planned,and delivered to the citizens in Africa.

Distributed Secure State Estimation of Multi-Agent Systems Under Homologous Sensor Attacks

This paper addresses the problem of distributed secure state estimation for multi-agent systems under homologous sensor attacks.Two types of secure Luenberger-like distributed observers are proposed to estimate the system state and attack signal simultaneously.Specifically,the proposed two observers are applicable to deal with the cases in the presence and absence of time delays during network communication.It is also shown that the proposed observers can ensure the attack estimations from different agents asymptotically converge to the same value.Sufficient conditions for guaranteeing the asymptotic convergence of the estimation errors are derived.Simulation examples are finally provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed results.

Intercept-resend attack on six-state quantum key distribution over collective-rotation noise channels

We investigate the effect of collective-rotation noise on the security of the six-state quantum key distribution. We study the case where the eavesdropper, Eve, performs an intercept-resend attack on the quantum communication between Alice, the sender, and Bob, the receiver. We first derive the collective-rotation noise model for the six-state protocol and then parameterize the mutual information between Alice and Eve. We then derive quantum bit error rate for three interceptresend attack scenarios. We observe that the six-state protocol is robust against intercept-resend attacks on collective rotation noise channels when the rotation angle is kept within certain bounds.

Secure state estimation for cyber-physical systems with unknown input sliding mode observer

In recent years, cyber attacks have posed great challenges to the development of cyber-physical systems. It is of great significance to study secure state estimation methods to ensure the safe and stable operation of the system. This paper proposes a secure state estimation for multi-input and multi-output continuous-time linear cyber-physical systems with sparse actuator and sensor attacks. First, for sparse sensor attacks, we propose an adaptive switching mechanism to mitigate the impact of sparse sensor attacks by filtering out their attack modes. Second, an unknown input sliding mode observer is designed to not only observe the system states, sensor attack signals, and measurement noise present in the system but also counteract the effects of sparse actuator attacks through an unknown input matrix. Finally, for the design of an unknown input sliding mode state observer, the feasibility of the observing system is demonstrated by means of Lyapunov functions. Additionally, simulation experiments are conducted to show the effectiveness of this method.

Quantum Private Comparison of Equal Information Based on Highly Entangled Six-Qubit Genuine State

Using the highly entangled six-qubit genuine state we present a quantum private comparison(QPC)protocol, which enables two users to compare the equality of two bits of their secrets in every round comparison with the assistance of a semi-honest third party(TP). The proposed protocol needs neither unitary operations nor quantum entanglement swapping technology, both of which may consume expensive quantum devices. Single particle measurements and Bell-basis measurements, which are easy to implement with current technologies, are employed by two users and TP in the proposed protocol, respectively. The proposed protocol can withstand all kinds of outside attacks and participant attacks. Moreover, none of information about the two users' private secrets and the comparison result is leaked out to TP.

Cultural Variables Within Prosecution of Chinese Corporate Espionage:The Case of USA Versus Yanjun Xu

The US government claims that US corporations lose billions of dollars worth of technological innovation each year to China.On average,the FBI opens a new China-related counterintelligence investigation every 12 h.At present there are over 2000 such investigations underway.One such case focused on Yanjun Xu,an alleged officer in the Chinese MSS(Ministry of State Security)intelligence apparatus.He was accused of seeking to steal General Electric/Aviation jet engine technology.A unique feature of his case is that it he allegedly did so without ever setting foot in the USA.During the course of the investigation,the FBI was able to lure Xu to Belgium in 2018 and he was extradited to the USA after being apprehended by the Belgium authorities.In October,2021 he was convicted of two counts of conspiring and attempting to commit economic espionage.Xu was also convicted of conspiracy to commit trade secret theft and two counts of attempted theft of trade secrets.He was defended by the Taft Law Firm in Cincinnati,Ohio.The author was hired by the Taft Law Firm to serve as a litigation consultant in the case and this affords him the opportunity to share relevant cultural variables associated with the case without revelation of confidential information.