What does this research mean for the field?

The Krylov Eavesdropper Detector achieves a false-positive rate of 4.5% and detects simulated intercept-resend attacks with 96.0% sensitivity on real QKD channel data. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.CONFIRMATORY. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.SUPPORTS_CONSENSUS.

What question did this study set out to answer?

The research aims to validate the Krylov Eavesdropper Detector using real data from a quantum key distribution system.

March 12, 2026Open Access

Real-Data Validation of the Krylov Eavesdropper Detector on Experimental QKD Channel Data

Key Points

The research aims to validate the Krylov Eavesdropper Detector using real data from a quantum key distribution system.
Analyzed 181,606 experimental QBER measurements from a fiber-optic QKD system.
Assessed detector performance based on false-positive rate and sensitivity to simulated attacks.
Conducted supplementary validation on 152.6 million trials from the NIST Bell Test dataset.
Achieved a false-positive rate of 4.5% in detecting simulated intercept-resend attacks.
Detected intercept-resend attacks with 96.0% sensitivity for ΔQBER ≥ 0.5%.
Confirmed specificity on clean quantum data through the NIST dataset.

Abstract

Paper 8 in the QKD Krylov Detector research series. We validate the Calibrated Slope Detector on 181,606 experimental QBER measurements from a real fiber-optic QKD system. The detector achieves a false-positive rate of 4.5% and detects simulated intercept-resend attacks from ΔQBER ≥ 0.5% with 96.0% sensitivity (AUC = 0.981) — an order of magnitude more sensitive than conventional QBER threshold monitoring. Supplementary validation on the NIST Loophole-Free Bell Test dataset (152.6 million trials) confirms specificity on clean quantum data. This completes the validation triangle: theoretical unforgeability (Paper 7), simulation-based sensitivity (Papers 5–6), and real-data validation (this work). Software: https://github.com/quantumspiritresearch-crypto/qkd-krylov-detector (v1.3.0)

Real-Data Validation of the Krylov Eavesdropper Detector on Experimental QKD Channel Data

Key Points

Abstract

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