IIoT Security from the stars? You’ve got to be Kidding!

Light from the stars has an average brightness. Our eyes can easily spot many visible light sources that have distinct levels of brightness. Light that in not visible to our eyes is also present. These include microwaves. At the microwave level there is a background of light not visible to our eyes and that fills the whole Universe. They are cold photon leftovers from the Big-Bang.

Across the universe there is an electromagnetic field. Photons are the constituents of light. These are excitations of energy that occur within that electromagnetic field. These excitations are (like) ripples on a pool of water. Each ripple of water has a height; the height of the ripple is comparable to the (probability of) number of photons in a “ripple” within the electromagnetic field. Like the water reaches a height in the pond during a ripple; the photons reach a “height” in the electromagnetic field when excited.

In a pool of water when the ripples go away the water is flat. The same thing happens in an electromagnetic field: the excitation goes to zero. Although the photons are not excited, the field is still there like the pool of water is still there. Like there are many different types of ripples and waves possible in a pool of water, there are many possible types of photonic ripples (or modes) of the electromagnetic field.

Like water ripples or waves, an average height value can be calculated. For example, average wave heights can be assigned, such as waves of 2 meters or waves of 10 meters. However, that is a calculated average and does not represent the true height of each wave. The height of each wave differs from this average. The height randomly varies but its average can be calculated. The same can be said for the number of photon excitations within an electromagnetic field.

Excited photons from an electromagnetic field have average values but fluctuate around the average. The random statistical properties of these photons can be harnessed to create secure communications for mankind – including secure communication for command/control of IIoT signals. While ripples in a pond can be controlled, photons cannot: photons are quantum particles, and photonic fluctuations are due to the inherent random properties of the Universe – that cannot be controlled. The KeyBITS technology uses these quantum photon fluctuations to create secure communications for digital signals by:

generating random bits and
creating random numbers that cloak the transmitted bits.

2. Bit Generation and Noise Generation

Entropy source for bit generation in the Physical Random Bit Generator (PhRBG or in the Noise Generator): Quantum fluctuations of the laser field
Stable system – no interferometry. Single telecom detector.
Continuous generation > 2Gbit/second (just electronics dependent speed – can be increased)
Miniaturization possible
A standalone equipment (patented)
Bit generation and noise generation can be done on the same unit for a lower cost or in separate units for faster speeds.
One bit cost is r-o-u-g-h-l-y =10/number of stars in the Via Lactea=1/10¹⁰

Comparison among KeyBITS generator and other physical random bit generators:

3. Bit Pool

All operations for the M-ry coding, Privacy Amplification steps and outputing authenticated messages, besides encryption and decryption, are done by KeyBITS software. The M-ry coding and decoding operations are discussed in a technical section ahead.

PRIVACY AMPLIFICATION – After a fresh sequence of bits is transferred from the Platform to the users, they executed protocol steps to eliminate any residual statistically information leaked to an attacker, eliminating a number of bits and shuffling the remaining ones. From this remaining set, a sequence z of bits constitute the encryption keys to be stored and used as necessary. The remaining ones forms the secret bases for the next round of secure transmission of keys. Round after round, fresh encryption keys are created (=distillation process). One-time-pad encryption can be used for Perfect Secrecy. The practical security level achieved can be calculated, supporting the Perfect Secrecy assumption.

PACKETS ARE AUTHENTICATED – In the key distribution stage, packets are tagged by hashing payload with shared keys constantly refreshed. Receiver accepts or refuses packets if tag in header does not match hash of payload produced by the shared key. Tagging packets using keys constantly refreshed in distinct runs provides a blockchain of hashes.

4. Decentralized encryption

Secure communications among team members can occur and the whole processing of encryption and decryption and key management runs in the background, with no need of interference by the users. To understand how this is done, consider, for example, that randomly 20 lines (1 to 20 random numbers) of random bits, with length of the message to be transmitted. are chosen. Assume that

are those lines of random numbers, within the long sequence of encryption bits stored in the USB device. The app applies an XOR operation over these 20 lines:

This obtained XOR sequence is the sequence of bits to encrypt bit-by-bit the (generic) message

The encrypted message contains an encrypted header that includes the numbering (indexes) of the encryption lines (that were “XOR”-red). The indexes do not reveal to the attacker the random numbers in each line. The receiver knows how to access the set and, therefore, can decrypt the message. This set of key sequences are replaced for each message sent.

In the decentralized use of a batch of keys, one statistically estimates that after multiple uses all keys in the total number of keys would have been used at least once, keys are automatically replenished. Keys are discarded after a renewing process happens for all users.

For more details see “A wireless secure key distribution system with no couriers: a One-Time-Pad Revival“