14 DAY TRIAL // What is the National Security Agency planning next? Well, it looks like the answer to that question is a quantum computer that can break encryptions protecting the most important records in the world.
According to the Washington Post, documents leaked by Edward Snowden indicate that the intelligence agency is trying to build a “cryptologically useful quantum computer.” This is apparently part of a program called “Penetrating Hard Targets” that has a fund base of $79.7 million (€58.4 million).
The race to build such a computer has been going on for years and physicists and computer scientists have been speculating on whether the NSA is getting ahead of everyone else, thanks to the massive funds the United States government shells out for the agency.
Unfortunately for the NSA, however, files leaked by Edward Snowden indicate that the agency isn’t really close to completing this task; not more than any other members of the scientific community, anyway.
“It seems improbable that the NSA could be that far ahead of the open world without anybody knowing it,” said Scott Aaronson, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“The geographic scope has narrowed from a global effort to a discrete focus on the European Union and Switzerland,” reads an NSA document quoted by the publication.
The fact that the intelligence agency would be looking to build such a powerful tool isn’t exactly surprising, as it actually falls in line with everything else the NSA has done so far to weaken encryption around the world.
Science is still a long way from succeeding in building the quantum computer, which is supposed to work on some theories that specialists believe no one completely understands.