The NSA has its own research project with a budget of only 58 million euros to a working quantum computer, in a document that Snowden has released. Quantum computing solutions that would, once, many encryption speed can crack.
The program within the NSA to the “cryptologically useful quantum computer’ to develop is in the documents Penetrating Hard Targets’. The study would in by metal shielded spaces will take place, according to the documents, ‘the delicate kwantumcomputerexperimenten keep it running’. The Faraday cages to prevent electromagnetic radiation to the inside or outside.
From the document, according to the Washington Post that the NSA does not go with their research than the leading universiteitsprojecten worldwide. The TU Delft, where groundbreaking research into the quantum computer is running, estimates that the still fifteen year can last for a working system enough computing power for solving complex calculations.
The quantum computer gets its extreme computing power of qubits: elementary particles in a quantum state at the same time 1 and 0 may form, where transistors of a regular computer has only 1 or 0 may indicate. However, there are only a limited number of algorithms, such as that of Shor or Grover, which is really a large advantage can be obtained, and it is already clear that encryption is one of the most important areas of application.
It is therefore no surprise that the NSA is carrying out research into the quantum computer. One of the driving forces behind research into a working quantum computer worldwide is DARPA, the onderzoekstak of the American department of defense. Also the research in Delft is for example supported by DARPA.