FORTUNE -- As revelations about the depth and breadth of the NSA's digital eavesdropping program continue to come to light, Ohio-based Battelle Memorial Institute is rolling out a new kind of network encryption designed to be virtually un-hackable -- not only now, but in the future. The non-profit research and development contractor has installed the first quantum key distribution (QKD) protected network in the U.S. linking its headquarters in Columbus to those in its manufacturing facilities in Dublin, Ohio, some 20 miles away.
Transmission of secure data typically relies on encryption and decryption "keys" generated by sophisticated algorithms and swapped between sender and receiver so encrypted data can be deciphered. These keys are generally considered secure, but their degree of security is highly dependent on how much computing power a third party has at its disposal. High-powered supercomputers can crack many of today's standard encryptions, and those encryption schemes that aren't breakable now will become so in the future as the speed and power of supercomputers continue their ever-accelerating uptick.
In other words, even the best standard encryption that's considered unbreakable today will be vulnerable at some point in the future -- likely the near future. That's one reason agencies like the NSA are building massive server farms in the Utah desert on which to bank encrypted data that they can't yet decipher. And it's why Battelle and its partners at Swiss quantum technology outfit ID Quantique are investing heavily in a new encryption scheme that they see as the future of high-value data security.
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