NSA reportedly building quantum computer that could crack most encryption types

The National Security Agency is reportedly racing to build a computer that will be able to break almost every kind of encryption used to protect medical, banking, business and government records around the world.

According to documents provided by NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden, a $79.7 million research program titled “Penetrating Hard Targets” includes a project to build a “cryptologically useful quantum computer” – a machine considerably faster than classic computers, The Washington Post reported Thursday

The implications of the NSA building a quantum computer are far reaching. Such a machine would open the door to cracking the strongest encryption tools in use today, including a standard known as RSA that scrambles communications and make them impossible to read for anyone except the intended recipient. RSA is commonly used in Web browsers for encrypted emails and secure financial transactions.

The development of such a machine has long been a goal of many in the scientific community, and would have revolutionary implications for fields like medicine as well as for the NSA’s code-breaking mission.

 

Fox News has the full article

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