A team of scientists from the Netherlands is proposing a security system for credit cards and passports that would leverage the power of quantum physics. Dubbed quantum-secure authentication (QSA), the technology uses a strip of nanoparticles on the card that would be virtually impossible to hack. The same tech could be used for ID cards, passports and other cards that might have embedded data strips to prevent forgeries.

With the quantum security system, the credit card’s nanoparticle strip would be zapped with a laser in such a way as to create a unique pattern that’s impossible to crack. That’s because the system harnesses the qualities of light in the quantum state, in which photons can exist in multiple places at the same time. The event that created the pattern could never be duplicated or observed.

the process works by transmitting a small, specific number of photons onto a specially prepared surface on a credit card and then observing the tell-tale pattern they make. Since -- in the quantum world -- a single photon can exist in multiple locations, it becomes possible to create a complex pattern with a few photons, or even just one.

dailytechinfo.org