For years, researchers, pundits, and privacy advocates have been hailing quantum cryptography as the best technology for protecting data and network links, but the technology has always been so far off in the future that few people have paid much attention to it. That may all be changing, since the Integrated EU-Project SECOQC (Development Network for Secure Communication Based on Quantum Cryptography) group, led by the Austrian Research Centers, have successfully demonstrated the use of quantum cryptography to secure a standard commercial fiber optic network. The network connects six locations in and around Vienna, Austria, and uses about 200 km of commercial fiber.
