NSA: The Quantum Computer Will Spy on the World

According to The Washington Post, the National Security Agency is building a machine that will be capable of cracking any security system. This is how it will be done …

It has been criticized, opposed and accused of invading our privacy, but the NSA still has one quality that is not worth just nothing: its obstinacy. As if it were not enough to have — more or less — the whole world against it, it seems the NSA is now making a concerted effort to take the next step toward control of the planet, via a quantum computer. The Washington Post published this report yesterday, along with several documents from Edward Snowden. According to these documents, the NSA is reported to be in the process of developing a supercomputer that is capable of surpassing any type of computer security system currently in use, including encrypted systems.

According to The Post’s report, the NSA is said to have invested some $80 million in a research project geared toward the construction of “a cryptologically useful quantum computer.” The machine will be able to interpret and unlock digital padlocks protecting the data and sensitive information of individuals and businesses around the world. The project mentioned in Snowden’s documents, on which engineers are rumored to be working, is called “Penetrating Hard Targets.” It falls under a field of study tasked with finding new solutions and systems for overcoming even the most difficult of computer protection systems, including those using cutting-edge encryption tools.

But What Might Be Capable of Building Such a Machine?

What is needed, first and foremost, is a system that can do what modern machines do, but in a much shorter time frame. The basic principle underlying quantum computing is a complex one. In the simplest possible terms, we might say that a classical computer uses binary bits, which are either zeroes or ones. A quantum computer makes use of quantum bits, or qubits, which are simultaneously both zero and one. It is based on the idea that an object exists in all states at the same time. The calculation speed can thus be changed. While classic computers can only complete one calculation at a time, quantum computers do not have the same limitations and can test different solutions at the same time.

For The Washington Post, a computer of this kind would not encounter any difficulty in overcoming a range of security systems, including those used by banks, governments, big businesses and private institutions. The NSA has also reported that it is working on a project inside large metal boxes known as Faraday cages, which electromagnetic energy cannot penetrate from the inside or outside. Scientists are thus able to study the behavior of the atoms, photons and electrons, to predict their positioning and, harder still, to direct their movement to facilitate the calculations.

According to the experts, the NSA’s quantum computer will not come into being before 2019, within which time others may have already been able to produce their own “elaborate” quantum systems. Perhaps, we should ask Google or D-Wave Systems, which provides the computers to NASA, to agree to studies and future developments with more ethical objectives than simply attacking encryption.