Practical and secure quantum randomness generation and communication

Quantum mechanics has profoundly revolutionized the field of physics and our understanding of nature. Many effects predicted by quantum mechanics and with no classical analogue such as wave-particle duality, the coherent superposition of quantum states, the uncertainty principle, entanglement, and non-locality, are in deep contrast with our general common sense and yet they survived to any experimental verification. Interestingly, when these peculiar quantum effects are studied within the framework of Information Theory, they provide advantages for tasks such as computation, communication, and cryptography. This thesis work studies how quantum resources can be exploited to develop and implement practical protocols for secure communication and private randomness generation. In particular, the work is focused on those protocols that offer an optimal compromise between security and performances and that are realizable with the current technology.