Progress in quantum-secure quantum-enhanced covert communication

Boulat Bash

University of Arizona

Abstract:

Hiding transmitted signals is of paramount importance in many communication settings. While traditional security (e.g., encryption) prevents unauthorized access to message content, detection of the mere presence of a message by the adversary can have significant negative impact. This necessitates the use of covert communication, which not only protects the information contained in a transmission from unauthorized decoding, but also prevents the detection of a transmission in the first place. In this talk, I will present the recent progress on quantum-secure covert communication, where the adversary's capabilities are assumed to be limited only by the laws of physics. I will also discuss the impact of quantum enhancements on covert communication. Though I will focus on the fundamental information-theoretic limits of covert communication, I will conclude by connecting to the recent work on quantum-enhanced receiver design.

Biography

Boulat Bash is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, joining the university after working at Raytheon BBN Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for three and a half years. He earned an undergraduate degree in economics at Dartmouth College, and his MS and PhD degrees in computer science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Bash's research is focused on covert communications, which involves not only protecting the content of communications from adversaries, but keeping adversaries from detecting that communication is happening at all. Bash has authored or co-authored 26 journals, conference articles and technical reports and has one patent.