Many news organizations including The Washington Post are reporting that the latest documents leaked by former NSA contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden show the NSA is in the early stages of working to build a quantum computer that could possibly crack most types of encryption. The NSA actually discloses they are working on quantum computing technology on their website, however, the status of the research was previously unknown. According to these new documents the agency is working on a “cryptologically useful quantum computer” as part of a research program called “Penetrating Hard Targets” and the goal is to use it for cracking encryption.
With headlines that scream, “NSA Secretly Funding Code-Breaking Quantum Computer Research,” it’s easy to see why many executives and enterprises are anxious and perhaps starting to lose faith in internet communications and transactions. Encryption is used to protect medical, banking, business and government records around the world. But, as many of the articles in the media today point out, the reality today is quantum computing is a theoretical research topic and is many years away from being a usable real-world technology. The Washington Post article quotes Scott Aaronson, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “It seems improbable that the NSA could be that far ahead of the open world without anybody knowing it.”