Part 2
Although data storage is certainly an on-going goal of the
NSA, a more likely immediate use may very well be brute-force hacks of
encryption, which is an extremely computation-intensive endeavor.
All modern communications are encrypted. The NSA is very interested in defeating
encryption, and has a facility in TN engaged in the “High Productivity
Computing System Program” that concentrates on that one goal. The immediate official goal of the program is
to design a computer capable of petaflop speed – that is, one quadrillion
operations per second.
Major progress on defeating encryption has already been made.
Note the mention of NSA “backdoors” in commercial
encryption. Scary, isn’t it?
Of course, technology changes very quickly. New methods of encryption are being written all
the time. The NSA will of course try to
defeat any new methods of encryption.
Assuming brute-force hacks, that is going to take considerable computer
capacity.
With all due respect to Moore’s Law, there are limits to
computational speed. That is, using conventional
technology.
The new frontier may be Quantum Computing. A good video explaining the basics of quantum
computing is here …
Before you assume it’s an entirely theoretical, consider
that Quantum Computers are already being made.
The NSA manufactures it's own chips (as does
Google and others who place a premium on security).
OK, the NSA has super-computers, is developing even
more-powerful computers, has an unlimited budget, and operates in secret with
little or no oversight. Why should I care?
No comments:
Post a Comment