Computing Machines Will Be a Treasure Center for Espionage

Near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA operates a large nuclear laboratory covered by a hermetic seal. A sign on the exit door says: “What you see here, what you do here, what you hear here, leave it here.” Now, however, the government is building a data center in Utah. The Vatican of Mormonism is much more secret than the Oak Ridge lab. So much so that they do not even display a sign on the exit door.

The Utah Data Center, a giant center that will carry on the work of the National Security Agency, will contain the fastest and most refined computational power in the world. Ten thousand workers converted the old airport in rural Bluffdale into a huge computer database of 92,900 square meters (equivalent to thirteen football fields), which, at a cost of $2 billion, will open within 18 months. When that happens, the most powerful spy station that history has known will come into operation. A base capable of simultaneously recording billions of calls, messages, transmissions, emissions and even tweets. “Everybody’s a target; everybody with communication is a target,” proudly proclaimed an official.

The NSA will perform three activities in Bluffdale: hoarding information, decoding secret material and analyzing that material. A fourth activity is not mentioned, but is implied: the ability to disrupt communications of others. The plan is to archive all information passing through their networks, even the most innocuous, with the idea that if it cannot be used today, tomorrow it can. The same applies to messages and codes of foreign powers, businesses, institutions and other entities. And what is not decipherable now will be when technology and algorithms advance more.

The purpose of this colossal intelligence center — next to which the dreaded Big Brother of Orwell is an autistic — is to ensure the security of America and its people. At least, this is the explanation offered by authorities. There is no doubt that such an enormous resource will facilitate the fight against terrorism and crime. Colombia can say that it has benefited from the technologies that Washington already handles, but nothing guarantees that this technology will be used to combat crime and scrutinize the secrets of other states. The host computer network will hold data on virtually everyone on the planet. A name and a number will allow penetration, in the most abrupt and illegal manner, into the privacy of any citizen’s bank accounts, medical reports, studies, shopping purchases, jobs, friends, relatives, private correspondences, calls … Maybe some laws will protect Americans from this assault on their privacy, but who is responsible for the rights of citizens of other countries?

Computing machines will be a treasure center for espionage. But the specialists who will work there will be the true value. It will be a combination of brains dedicated to making the most of the equipment and constantly improving the network capacity. These brains, however, are less docile than the ones that operate the keyboard. It is for this reason that the first serious concerns in the Utah Data Center come from William Binney, a respected veteran cryptographer and mathematician for the NSA, who, alarmed by the dangerous power of the center, retired from the agency. “We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state,” he said.