Random numbers are vital resources for modern day information processing, especially for information security. Random Number Generators (RNGs) are ubiquitous in computing and communication devices. However, none of the current solutions is completely satisfactory, undermining the very foundation of digital security. Thus enhancing the security of the current RNGs is imperative for safeguarding a prosperous secure information society. The proposed technology exploits a new solution space, and represents one of the first concrete applications of quantum information science, and has the potential to draw even more public interest to the field. Randomness is universal, and its applications are across many fields. The target customer is a business which uses random numbers on a routine basis, and who has the potential for large losses if its randomness sources turn out to not be random. Two examples might be companies that manage electronic transactions and gambling casinos.
The proposed technology is a certifiable random number generator based on quantum physics. The team can design an apparatus that will generate random bits while at the same certifying that the bits are random - even without any trust in the apparatus used. At the center of the technology is the idea that measurements on an entangled quantum state cannot be faked by any classical process. Based on this principle, a client can fully trust the outputs of the generator based on a simple assumption about the operation of the device (specifically, that no communication occurs between two separate components of the device).
