Russian atomic clocks protected using quantum cryptography

2022: Information Protection Experiment GET-1

On July 6, 2022, it became known that a group of scientists from the companies QRate and "" Security Code together with specialists from All-Russian Research Institute of Physical, Technical and Radio Engineering Measurements (VNIIFTRI) conducted an experiment on the information protection State primary standard of time units, frequency and national time scale (GET-1). They managed to use to quantum cryptography strengthen information security the atomic time standard.

The benchmark clock reflects the result with an accuracy of a billionth of a second and is used to configure and synchronize time by energy and logistics companies, airport and station services, the GLONASS system, as well as banks and the stock exchange, where a failure even for a millisecond is estimated at hundreds of millions of rubles of damage.

As a result of the experiment, scientists and engineers ensured that information about the reference time was protected from attacks using classical and quantum computers. Based on the results of the tests, the system can be considered in the comprehensive protection of GET-1 information.

As of July 2022, about half a billion consumers synchronize the exact time daily through the NTP servers of VNIIFTRI, where the hardware complex of the reference time UET 1-2022 is stored and serviced and an independent national time scale of the Russian Federation is formed. In this case, the synchronization accuracy of the reference source and the network elements of the consumer depends on the applied data channel protection algorithms, which must be ensured at a high level of reliability. The use of domestic solutions and developments offered by specialists within the framework of this project will make it possible to maximize the security of channels for transmitting reference time and frequency signals and minimize forced data adjustments to consumers during operation, "said Maxim Khromov, Deputy Head of the Main Metrology Center of the State Time and Frequency Service of the Russian Federation.

The protection of synchronization channels is critical for the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, telecommunications, securities trading and other tasks. Our proposed quantum key distribution systems provide high accuracy of time synchronization and stable protection of transmitted data, "said Sergey Vorobey, engineer at QRate.