A method of improving the security of a QKD system is disclosed. The QKD
system exchanges qubits between QKD stations, wherein the brief period of
time surrounding the expected arrival time of a qubit at a modulator in a
QKD station defines a gating interval. The method includes randomly
activating the modulator in a QKD station both within the gating interval
and outside of the gating interval, while recording those modulations
made during the gating interval. Such continuous or near-continuous
modulation prevents an eavesdropper from assuming that the modulations
correspond directly to the modulation of a qubit. Thus, an eavesdropper
(Eve) has the additional and daunting task of determining which
modulations correspond to actual qubit modulations before she can begin
to extract any information from detected modulation states of the
modulator.