Newly leaked documents show the National Security
Agency is interested in a new breed of supercomputer.
A report in The Washington Post indicates
the NSA is researching quantum computers as
possible tools in its intelligence-gathering
arsenal.
The objective: crack encryption schemes faster
than ever.
Right now, even the fastest computers can
be slow to break down the security walls encryption
puts up around data.
Since they're built on the binary language
of ones and zeros, they have to do all their
computing in sequence.
(Via YouTube / Veritasium)
Quantum computers can theoretically get around
this bottleneck because their bits can be
simultaneously one and zero.
These "qubits," as they're called, could yield
exponentially faster code breaking.
(Via KPNX)
If only such machines existed.
The NSA isn't trying to build one — at least
not yet.
Instead, it's directing its people to "conduct
basic research in quantum physics ... to determine
if, and how, a cryptographically useful quantum
computer can be built."
(Via The Verge)
The documents suggest the NSA is no closer
to a workable code-breaking quantum computer
than most civilian scientists and researchers
are, despite having sunk nearly $80 million
into the initiative.
Techdirt says, "While it may employ lots of
very smart folks, it would be pretty difficult
for the NSA to be particularly far ahead of
anyone else on a big challenge like this one."
MIT researchers told The Washington Post a
quantum computer robust enough to handle the
kind of code breaking the NSA wants is five
years away, at a minimum.
