On any given day, millions of e-commerce transactions send credit card and bank-account numbers zipping across the globe. To keep the bits of information private, companies such as PayPal use encryption software that employs mathematically intense algorithms. In a more advanced tactic, researchers now report sending a message embedded in light and masked by a wildly fluctuating laser beam.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.