MIT TECH REVIEW: Technology future of the world's largest intelligence agency NSA

For those who work deeply in science, it is difficult to understand Gil Herra's mission.Herra's mission is to form a future in which the United States is advantageous at the unknown quantum physics and mathematics theorem levels that cannot be solved.

Herra has recently become a leader in the US National Security Bureau (NSA) Research Headquarters.The research headquarters has two missions, like other NSA organizations, protecting US systems and conducting foreign intelligence.The budget of NSA is a secret, and it is a secret in the secret, but in light of any standard, it is one of the world's largest intelligence agencies.The Herra's Research Headquarters is the largest internal research and development department in a national intelligence community, and must come up with a solution to unrealistic problems in a world that has not yet existed.

In the first interview after taking office, Herra reveals the technology and threats that her group focuses.From the priority order, you can see how the NSA target is changing.Herra has rated the rapid changes in geopolitical situations in parallel with the terrogue loop monitoring work.In terms of both threats and opportunities, we explain why the rise of new technologies is the center of the NSA Research Headquarters.

Herra steered while NSA faced a new challenge.The pole world of the Cold War was the past, and the short role in the United States as the only superpower is over.The new world defined as a new era of competition between great powers, such as the United States, China, and Russia, is more chaotic.On the other hand, the NSA, on the other hand, still remains damage in the large amount of information leaks announced nine years ago over monitoring programs for the world and domestic.The incident caused a storm of NSA criticism, shouting an organization reform, and the average American awareness of the NSA changed.Companies that cooperated with the NSA began to avoid NSA with confusion and anger.And this incident also changed the method of operating the NSA.

"We are currently needing to start more focus on bigger, more advanced enemies, and enemies who do not necessarily use commercial services," says Herra."It is an enemy that has its own service and creates its own technology. We need to respond to such enemies as a research headquarters. We can scrutinize the enormous amount of information that can be brought in, and the results of competition between the great powers.We need to provide technology that can be used to monitor systems that are starting to appear. "

Technology changes are accelerating and predictions are becoming more difficult.

"When there is such a change, it takes time and effort," says Herra."Technology is a new challenge for each generation."

For example, the NSA Research Headquarters has spent a great deal of resources to acquire quantum computing technology.Quantum computing is a technology that can break the encryption used to protect confidential data in the current and future digital world.Powerful countries, companies, and universities are investing in the construction of a powerful quantum computer that can perform faster faster operations than today's computers.

"The competition between the great powers is the key," Herra says."Depending on where the competition between the great powers is, the technologies and accesses we need will change. Technology such as quantum computing and 5th generation mobile communication (5G) is a part of it."

The NSA Research Headquarters has been at the forefront of quantum computing research since 1995, immediately after the announcement of Shore's algorithm.The algorithm shows that quantum computers can factor the numbers faster than regular computers.Factor decomposition is exactly the work required for crypto decoding.

The footprints of the NSA Research Headquarters have appeared in the form of basic research that move this field, and are also found inside the state -of -the -art computer built by a huge tech company.This is a proof that the competition for the world's best quantum computers, which has been reported in a large way, has proven this.Both Google and IBM have adopted the same basic components in the machine, creating a quantum movement called Transmon Cubit, which was invented with the support of the NSA Research Headquarters.Historically, Herra says that NSA is the largest fund provider as a single organization in academic quantum computing research.

Herrura is muddy about the details of what the NSA Research Headquarters aims for, but when asked about the issues of intelligence activities in the world where technology progresses rapidly, 5g has appeared around the world.I point out.Herra explains that 5G has a unique new task in collecting information.5G correctly ...