Secure transmissions using chaos physics, without using encryption

Exploiting chaos physics to keep transmissions secure: this is the innovative technology described in Nature Communications in a work led by Tie Jun Cui, of Southeast University, and the contribution of Vincenzo Galdi of the University of Sannio. A method that eliminates the need for encryption because the information can be read correctly only if the receiver is in exactly the right place, for everyone else the signal is just noise.

“Today, transmitting information using wireless systems,” Galdi explained to ANSA, “requires the use of encryption software and an exchange of keys needed to encode and decode the message. A method that has various critical points. We propose a new paradigm: making communications secure by acting at a previous level, at the hardware level.” An idea that recalls the films that can be placed over computer screens to ensure privacy and eliminate prying eyes. Films that ensure that only those who stand directly in front of it can correctly see what appears on the screen.

“We can do something very similar with electromagnetic communications that become readable only for those who are in the chosen point, they are focused for the receiver who is in the right position, for everyone else the message is chaotic, absolutely indecipherable,” Galdi continued. What makes this possible are the so-called metasurfaces, artificial materials made up of tiny mirrors capable of reflecting electromagnetic waves in a perfectly controllable way and focusing them in a precise region.

"A particularly important aspect - concluded the Italian researcher - is that it is a new paradigm of security, very high, which does not require any changes from a practical point of view, neither of the transmission nor reception antennas. We exploit in a simple way the physics of chaos applied to security, eliminating the need to protect information with an always dangerous exchange of cryptographic keys".