NSA building ‘quantum computer,’ says Washington Post

WASHINGTON—The US National Security Agency (NSA) is making strides toward building a “quantum computer” that could break nearly any kind of encryption, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The Post said leaked documents from fugitive ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden indicated the computer would allow the secret intelligence agency to break encryption used to protect banking, medical, business and government records around the world.

Quantum computing has been a goal among commercial firms, such as IBM, because it can harness the power of atoms and molecules, vastly increasing speed and security of computers and other devices.

But experts cited by the newspaper said it was unlikely that the NSA would be close to creating such a machine without the scientific community being aware of it.

Improbable

“It seems improbable that the NSA could be that far ahead of the open world without anybody knowing it,” Scott Aaronson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told the daily.

The NSA declined to comment on the report.

The Post said the leaked documents indicated that the agency carries out research in large, shielded rooms known as Faraday cages designed to prevent electromagnetic energy from entering or exiting.

Encryption breaker

Because of its vast computing power, a working quantum computer would break the strongest encryption tools in use today for online activities, including banking and e-mails.

Some technology firms, such as Google and Yahoo!, have said in recent weeks that they were stepping up efforts to encrypt their communications following reports that the NSA had been able to break or circumvent many of the current encryption standards.

A September report by The New York Times, ProPublica and The Guardian, also based on leaked documents, said US and British spy agencies were able to decipher data even with the supposedly secure encryption to make it private.

The documents indicated that the NSA, working with its British counterpart, Government Communications Headquarters, accomplished the feat by using supercomputers, court orders and some cooperation from technology companies.

Defeating security

If the reports are accurate, the highly secretive program would defeat much of what is used to keep data secure and private on the Internet, from
e-mails to chats to communications using smartphones.

IBM researchers said last year they had made advances in quantum computing that has the potential to outperform any existing supercomputer.
The new type of computing uses information encoded into quantum bits or qubits, putting into use a theory that scientists have been discussing for decades.

Quantum computing expands on the most basic piece of information that a typical computer understands—a bit—and thereby can perform millions of calculations at once.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Snowden’s leaks most serious in US history—ex-CIA official

WASHINGTON—Leaks from Edward Snowden have helped America’s adversaries and represent the most serious breach of classified information in US history, the CIA’s former number-two ranking official said in an interview Friday.

Michael Morrell, who served as deputy director and acting director of the CIA, told CBS television’s “60 Minutes” program that the former intelligence contractor’s disclosures have damaged efforts to track possible terror threats.

“What Edward Snowden did — has put Americans at greater risk– because terrorists learn from leaks and they will be more careful, and we will not get the intelligence we would have gotten otherwise,” said Morrell, who recently stepped down after 33 years at the CIA.

Snowden has portrayed himself as a whistleblower concerned about National Security Agency eavesdropping and other secret surveillance, but Morrell said the former contractor was a traitor to his country.

“I think this is the most serious leak — the most serious compromise of classified information in the history of the US intelligence community,” he said.

The most damaging disclosure from Snowden exposed the intelligence community’s secret budget, or “black book,” Morrell said.

Details of what the intelligence agencies spend money on reveal priorities and potential weaknesses that foreign spy services can exploit, he said.

“They could focus their counter-intelligence efforts on those places where we’re being successful. And not have to worry as much about those places where we’re not being successful,” Morrell said, in excerpts of the interview released by CBS.

The full interview will be broadcast Sunday.

Morrell also warned of the dangers posed by political acrimony in Washington after a partial government shutdown dismayed allies and rattled domestic and foreign markets.

“What really keeps me up at night is the inability of our government to make decisions that will push this country forward,” he said.

“Any country’s national security is more dependent on the strength of its economy and on the strength of its society than anything else.”

Morrell served as CIA deputy director from 2010 to 2013, and was named acting director twice, including in November 2012 after retired general David Petraeus resigned after acknowledging an affair with his biographer.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net