Survey on quantum information security

The security of classical cryptography based on computational complexity assumptions has been severely challenged with the rapid development of quantum computers and quantum algorithms. Quantum cryptography, which offers unconditional security based on some principles of quantum mechanics, has become a significant branch and hotspot in the field of modern cryptography research. In this paper, we review the research and development of several important and well-studied branches of quantum cryptography in terms of theory and experiment, including quantum key distribution, quantum secret sharing, quantum secure direct communication, quantum signature, and quantum private query. We also briefly review the research and development of some other branches which are currently in the stage of theoretical research but receive widespread concern from academia, including quantum private comparison, quantum anonymous voting, quantum secure multi-party summation, quantum sealed-bid auction, quantum public key cryptosystem, quantum key agreement, quantum dialogue, and quantum identity authentication. In addition, we discuss some open issues and future research directions for the branches referred to above.