nsa1.jpg

On top of not wanting to stop spying on you without your consent, reports are now saying that the NSA is spending nearly $80 million to build a quantum computer that can knock out any encryption. The Washington Post has just published details of the program based on documents supplied by Edward Snowden.

We're getting more news of these things. Will the latest leak help Snowden's clemency call? Probably not. According to the report, some of the world's best physicists feel like the NSA has the best chance of succeeding.

Building a quantum computer is the holy grail of technology innovation. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, as opposed to bits (ones and zeroes). Qubits can represent a one, a zero or anything in between, giving it exponential power.

[WaPo]