Development of Quantum Key Distribution and Attacks against It

Secure and efficient communication between two parties always incents scholars for further research. Creation of such a means of communication yields commercial benefits for our society. With the creation of a quantum computer, some classical protocols used for secure communication is no longer secure. Quantum key distribution is created to solve this problem. Although a quantum key distribution protocol is in theory guaranteed to be secure, there has been ways to breach its security in real life application. Since the creation of the first quantum key distribution protocol, there has been a rival between the defending and attacking side of quantum key distribution. In this paper, we first seek to discuss the basics of the first quantum key distribution protocol. Secondly, we discuss about the attacks against that protocol and the modifications made to the protocol in response to these attacks. Currently, researchers have permanently closed one side of the implementation loophole that could give rise to potential means of hacking of the protocol.