September 1, 2026: CyberRidge, the pioneer of harvest-proof encryption, today released a demonstration showing how a clip-on optical coupler, available online for a few hundred dollars, can silently capture the entirety of a fiber-optic data stream, without being detected.

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In the demonstration, a CyberRidge engineer clips the coupler onto a standard fiber cable carrying live traffic between two endpoints. No fiber is cut. No alarms trigger. The coupler simply propagates out a fraction of the light, enough to extract every bit of the digitally encrypted data stream. The sender and receiver are shown exchanging data as expected - nothing is degraded and nothing goes missing. The sender and receiver see an ordinary, uninterrupted exchange. However, the attacker holds an identical real-time copy of the data packet.  

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“This demo defies a pervasive industry-wide misperception that as long as data-in-transit is encrypted, it’s safe," said Prof. Dan Sadot, Founder and CEO of CyberRidge. "In reality, data-in-transit can be easily compromised. The bar for exfiltrating data is almost nothing. Anyone with basic technical skills and a device that costs less than a dinner out can physically tap a live fiber link and exfiltrate 100% of your traffic. And you would never know."

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The captured traffic is still encrypted ciphertext. But this is precisely the danger known as HNDL  - Harvest Now Decrypt Later - the window between when an adversary records encrypted data and when that data becomes decrypted, either by a stolen or leaked key or a cryptographically relevant quantum computer. Gartner puts the availability of such a computer at a 75% chance of arriving by 2030. Meaning, data harvested today is effectively compromised, and to be decoded tomorrow.

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The coupler demonstration illustrates a broader gap between advanced post-quantum security algorithms and photonic-layer security

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CyberRidge's Carmel platform is built to close this gap at its source. Rather than strengthening the encrypted algorithm, Carmel removes the recordable signal entirely. This transforms data-in-transit into physical optical noise at Layer 1, so even in a clip-on coupler attack, there is nothing coherent to capture, store, or eventually decrypt. Deployed as a drop-in replacement for existing line cards, there is zero added latency or link length limits, making it a suitable solution for wide infrastructure networks already carrying live traffic.

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About CyberRidge
CyberRidge delivers a post-quantum, harvest-proof solution representing a true breakthrough in securing data-in-transit. Operating at the physical layer, its Carmel hardware manipulates light to make data interception and recording impossible by using physics complementary to encryption algorithms. Designed for rapid deployment, it integrates seamlessly into existing DWDM infrastructures without added latency. It eliminates harvest-now-decrypt-later threats and is resilient to future quantum computing advances.

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Media Contact:
Guy Berlyne

Director of Business Development

guy.berlyne@cyber-ridge.com 

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