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House GOP passes bill to force Obama to crack down on legal weed in states that allow it

Report: NSA developing quantum computer that could crack most encryption

By End the Lie

(Image credit: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)

The National Security Agency (NSA) is currently developing a quantum computer capable of cracking almost every type of encryption, according to documents provided to The Washignton Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

This comes after it was revealed that the NSA has backdoor access to the iPhone, places backdoors in electronics produced by companies like Cisco and Dell and intercepts electronics shipments to install surveillance software and hardware.

The latest report published by the Post on Thursday states that the agency’s question to build “a cryptologically useful quantum computer” is part of the $ 79.7 million “Penetrating Hard Targets” research program.

Most of the work is reportedly carried out under classified contracts at a lab in College Park, Maryland.

The quantum computer, a machine far more powerful than the fastest traditional computer, could be able to break “nearly every kind of encryption used to protect banking, medical, business and government records around the world,” according to the Post.

One major security company, however, was tied to the NSA with a  $ 10 million contract, apparently part of an arrangement making it easier for the agency to crack their encryption.

Reports in September also stated that NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ crack encryption and covertly influence companies.

While the NSA is seeking to develop this code-cracking quantum computer, some say the agency is actually far from obtaining their goal.

“It seems improbable that the NSA could be that far ahead of the open world without anybody knowing it,” Scott Aaronson, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, said to the Post.

Indeed, the paper reports “the documents provided by Snowden suggest that the NSA is no closer to success than others in the scientific community.”

The agency has the goal of demonstrating “dynamical decoupling and complete quantum control on two semiconductor qubits” by the end of September, according to the documents.

For more info on how a quantum computer works and what a “qubit” is, see the below video:

“This will enable initial scaling towards large systems in related and follow-on efforts,” the document states.

Yet the agency is reportedly pouring tens of millions of dollars into developing a quantum computer capable of breaking even the most complex methods of encryption.

Another project, separate from “Penetrating Hard Targets,” called “Owning the Net,” is using quantum research to create new attacks on some of today’s most secure encryption methods.

“The irony of quantum computing is that if you can imagine someone building a quantum computer that can break encryption a few decades into the future, then you need to be worried right now,” said Daniel Lidar, professor of electrical engineering and the director of the Center for Quantum Information Science and Technology at the University of Southern California.

Apparently, the NSA is indeed worried right now.

“The application of quantum technologies to encryption algorithms threatens to dramatically impact the US government’s ability to both protect its communications and eavesdrop on the communications of foreign governments,” an internal NSA document provided by Snowden states.

Just how long it will be until this type of technology is a reality remains to be seen. University of Manchester professor Jeff Forshaw told the Guardian last year that it is “probably too soon to speculate on when the first full-scale quantum computer will be built but recent progress indicates that there is every reason to be optimistic.”

Seth Lloyd, professor of quantum mechanical engineering at MIT, told the Post that he thinks the type of quantum computer the NSA desires will take at least five years to develop.

Without a major breakthrough, it may take much longer, Lloyd told the Post in a recent interview.

Yet a small quantum computer was already sold to a consortium made up of Google, NASA and the Universities Space Research Association for $ 10 million by D-Wave Systems, a Canadian company, in 2012.

D-Wave Systems said they have been making quantum computers since 2009 and reports state that they also sold machines to Lockheed Martin.

The NSA has remained silent on the matter, declining to comment for the Post and The Hill.

We would love to hear your opinion, take a look at your story tips and even your original writing if you would like to get it published. Please email us at [email protected]

Please support alternative news and help us start paying contributors by donating, doing your shopping through our Amazon link or check out some must-have products at our store.

Help Spread Alternative News

End the Lie – Independent News

Report: NSA developing quantum computer that could crack most encryption

Report: NSA developing quantum computer that could crack most encryption

Report: NSA developing quantum computer that could crack most encryption
http://EndtheLie.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/NSA-shield-2-225x300.jpg

By End the Lie

(Image credit: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)

The National Security Agency (NSA) is currently developing a quantum computer capable of cracking almost every type of encryption, according to documents provided to The Washignton Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

This comes after it was revealed that the NSA has backdoor access to the iPhone, places backdoors in electronics produced by companies like Cisco and Dell and intercepts electronics shipments to install surveillance software and hardware.

The latest report published by the Post on Thursday states that the agency’s question to build “a cryptologically useful quantum computer” is part of the $ 79.7 million “Penetrating Hard Targets” research program.

Most of the work is reportedly carried out under classified contracts at a lab in College Park, Maryland.

The quantum computer, a machine far more powerful than the fastest traditional computer, could be able to break “nearly every kind of encryption used to protect banking, medical, business and government records around the world,” according to the Post.

One major security company, however, was tied to the NSA with a  $ 10 million contract, apparently part of an arrangement making it easier for the agency to crack their encryption.

Reports in September also stated that NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ crack encryption and covertly influence companies.

While the NSA is seeking to develop this code-cracking quantum computer, some say the agency is actually far from obtaining their goal.

“It seems improbable that the NSA could be that far ahead of the open world without anybody knowing it,” Scott Aaronson, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, said to the Post.

Indeed, the paper reports “the documents provided by Snowden suggest that the NSA is no closer to success than others in the scientific community.”

The agency has the goal of demonstrating “dynamical decoupling and complete quantum control on two semiconductor qubits” by the end of September, according to the documents.

For more info on how a quantum computer works and what a “qubit” is, see the below video:

“This will enable initial scaling towards large systems in related and follow-on efforts,” the document states.

Yet the agency is reportedly pouring tens of millions of dollars into developing a quantum computer capable of breaking even the most complex methods of encryption.

Another project, separate from “Penetrating Hard Targets,” called “Owning the Net,” is using quantum research to create new attacks on some of today’s most secure encryption methods.

“The irony of quantum computing is that if you can imagine someone building a quantum computer that can break encryption a few decades into the future, then you need to be worried right now,” said Daniel Lidar, professor of electrical engineering and the director of the Center for Quantum Information Science and Technology at the University of Southern California.

Apparently, the NSA is indeed worried right now.

“The application of quantum technologies to encryption algorithms threatens to dramatically impact the US government’s ability to both protect its communications and eavesdrop on the communications of foreign governments,” an internal NSA document provided by Snowden states.

Just how long it will be until this type of technology is a reality remains to be seen. University of Manchester professor Jeff Forshaw told the Guardian last year that it is “probably too soon to speculate on when the first full-scale quantum computer will be built but recent progress indicates that there is every reason to be optimistic.”

Seth Lloyd, professor of quantum mechanical engineering at MIT, told the Post that he thinks the type of quantum computer the NSA desires will take at least five years to develop.

Without a major breakthrough, it may take much longer, Lloyd told the Post in a recent interview.

Yet a small quantum computer was already sold to a consortium made up of Google, NASA and the Universities Space Research Association for $ 10 million by D-Wave Systems, a Canadian company, in 2012.

D-Wave Systems said they have been making quantum computers since 2009 and reports state that they also sold machines to Lockheed Martin.

The NSA has remained silent on the matter, declining to comment for the Post and The Hill.

We would love to hear your opinion, take a look at your story tips and even your original writing if you would like to get it published. Please email us at contact@EndtheLie.com.

Please support alternative news and help us start paying contributors by donating, doing your shopping through our Amazon link or check out some must-have products at our store.

End the Lie – Independent News

Read more about Report: NSA developing quantum computer that could crack most encryption and other interesting subjects concerning The Edge at TheDailyNewsReport.com

"Rogue Sociologist" Embeds With Prostitutes and Crack Dealers in NYC

Paresh Gandi

You may remember Sudhir Venkatesh from Freakonomics as the “rogue sociologist” who cozied up to a Chicago drug gang to analyze its social and economic structure—fodder for his 2008 bestseller, Gang Leader for a Day. For his new book, Floating City, Venkatesh, now a professor at Columbia University, spent years following off-the-books workers in New York City, most notably an upper-middle-class madam and an ambitious crack dealer.

As his subjects evolve (or fail to), we get a refreshing glimpse of how they view themselves: as businesspeople trying to improve their craft and grow their clientele. Venkatesh weaves his own story—a new faculty member trying to fit in at an elite university amid marital strife—into the narrative, and readers get to follow him around as he goes about his research.

Mother Jones: In Gang Leader for a Day, you befriend a Chicago drug gang in order to analyze its social and economic structure. In Floating City, your new book, you explore the illegal underground economies of New York City. What was your intention?

Sudhir Venkatesh: We’ve been so enamored with our global cities, and we tend to focus on wealth and sometimes will forget the fact that 99 percent of the population in these cities has a much different experience. So I wanted to uncover that, and more and more I found that in my attempt to do that I had to take the underground economy more seriously. Not only the sex and drugs, which are two economies that are featured prominently here, but also people who are working off the books.

MJ: You wound up profiling people who work illegally, including a madam from a rich family—whom it turned out you knew previously.

SV: I had come in with the classic stereotypes. And those stereotypes are in the academic research as well. But when I went out to find those people, I saw something totally different: white, middle-upper class women coming to New York and dating, sometimes sleeping with people on the side but not making much more money, not necessarily wanting to support a drug habit, not necessarily wanting to leave the trade but looking at it as something that was a legitimate income source for them and something that was helping them become part of New York.

Continue Reading »

Culture | Mother Jones

"Rogue Sociologist" Embeds With Prostitutes and Crack Dealers in NYC

Toronto mayor denies smoking crack cocaine

1 of 7. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford leaves his home in Toronto, May 17, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Mark Blinch

By Julie Gordon

TORONTO | Fri May 17, 2013 10:56am EDT

TORONTO (Reuters) – Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denies allegations that he smoked crack cocaine, his lawyer told the Toronto Sun on Friday.

Reporters for the Toronto Star, a rival Canadian newspaper, and Gawker Media, a U.S. media outlet, said they had seen a video that appears to show Ford smoking crack.

The lawyer, Dennis Morris, told the Toronto Sun that the mayor is denying “any such allegation.”

The video is allegedly being shopped around for $ 100,000 by people said to be involved in the drug trade. Reuters could not independently confirm the existence of the video.

Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday said he has not spoken with Ford since the allegations surfaced, but he told reporters he stands by the mayor.

“Certainly, at this point, we all know that videos can be altered and we certainly know that drug dealers can’t be trusted,” he said at Toronto City Hall. “So I don’t know what we’re dealing with here, and until we do, I don’t really have much to say.”

The mayor and Morris did not immediately return Reuters’ requests for comment.

“We’re just trying to see whether or not such a video exists and whether or not any video has been doctored or altered,” Morris told the Toronto Sun.

Asked if Ford planned legal action, Morris said it is at the “bottom rung of the ladder” now.

The Toronto Star said that it stands by its reporting and that the story is just one piece of a broader investigative report about Ford it has been working on for months.

“This isn’t a story that we’re going to report lightly,” said Robyn Doolittle, one of two Toronto Star reporters who said they watched the video three times.

“This is part of an ongoing investigation that myself and a colleague, Kevin Donovan, have been working on for months,” Doolittle said.

She added: “The Toronto Star has a high bar that we always make sure we meet before we run something, especially when it comes to this mayor.”

Ford, who took office more than two years ago with a promise to “stop the gravy train” at city hall, has sparked controversy by skipping council meetings to coach high-school football and engaging in a confrontation outside his home with a reporter, among other things.

He was briefly ordered out of office in 2012 after he was found guilty of conflict of interest but won the appeal and was allowed to finish his four-year term.

Ford has not been seen in public since the allegations surfaced late on Thursday.

Early Friday morning, the following tweet was posted on his official Twitter account: “The long weekend is here! Catch a ferry to Toronto Island Park for a scenic picnic. Details here: here … #LongWknd #Topoli.”

(Reporting by Julie Gordon; Editing by Janet Guttsman and Ciro Scotti)

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Reuters: Lifestyle

Toronto mayor denies smoking crack cocaine