

Booz Allen Hamilton hiring quantum information physicist - mcantelon
http://www.clearancejobs.com/?action=view_job&jobID=1660560&ref=simply&utm_source=simplyhired&utm_medium=jobfeed&utm_campaign=alljobs

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michael_nielsen
BAH was hiring in quantum information as early as the late 1990s, if I recall
correctly. Certainly they were doing so by the early 2000s. It's not
surprising that BAH is interested: the NSA and DARPA have been funding
research on quantum computing since the mid-1990s.

(I worked in the field from 1992 through 2008.)

Edit: See, for example, this 2004 article on "Quantum networks: from quantum
cryptography to quantum architecture", with several BAH authors, including the
lead author:
[http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1039117&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFI...](http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1039117&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFID=220110996&CFTOKEN=74909473)
This took a few seconds to find with Google, I wouldn't be surprised to find
earlier examples.

~~~
mhartl
Based on the headline, I initially thought it was an announcement, not a job
posting, so I tried to think of whose hiring they would bother to announce. My
next thought was, "Maybe they're hiring Michael Nielsen?" (I'd forgotten for
the moment about the Snowden angle, so I didn't immediately realize you might
not be willing to work for them.)

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cantos
If you are really worried about government or government contractors building
quantum computers in secret to break RSA in order to read your email you can
just encrypt with either NTRU or McElice schemes which have been around for a
while and aren't known to be breakable with an efficient quantum computer.

Of course if you are truly paranoid you might believe that the government
knows how to break these schemes as well. In that case I have a great deal on
bulk orders of carrier pigeons that might interest you

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pvnick
I just had an intriguing thought. Wouldn't it be interesting/ironic to see BAH
made a target of anon hacking, successfully penetrated, and publicly
embarrassed further than the Snowden fiasco? I think Feinstein might pop a
blood vessel.

~~~
philar
Why? This isn't a case of some shadowy organization actively trying to spy on
americans, a la HBGary. BAH had a contract to support netops and hired
Snowden. Not exactly the same thing Barr did as CEO.

~~~
pvnick
I'm not advocating or encouraging the hacking (I'd like to think I'm smarter
than that). I'm saying for the case of the national discussion happening at
the moment regarding government contractors carrying out national security
jobs, I would be interested to see the response of folks like Feinstein, who
publicly discussed limiting contractor access [1]. If contractors aren't
trusted with secrets, the outcome plays right into Assange's theory of the
locking down of information and subsequent paralysis of an authoritarian
conspiracy [2].

[1] [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-14/feinstein-eyes-
limi...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-14/feinstein-eyes-limit-on-
contractor-access-after-nsa-leaks.html)

[2] [http://cryptome.org/0002/ja-
conspiracies.pdf](http://cryptome.org/0002/ja-conspiracies.pdf)

~~~
philar
I agree that it would likely yield an interesting discussion. The fact is
federal contractors are responsible for almost all cases of espionage in the
past 10 years.

Good links too.

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mpyne
It just occurred to me: If I were an intelligence agency, or intelligence
agency contractor, I would start putting out job opening for all _sorts_ of
outlandish shit, just to keep people guessing about what the real capabilities
are.

And if no one gets hired for some of these because the capability isn't there,
well, we can just say that no applicants had the needed
knowledge/skills/abilities.

------
nolite
so the US Gov is now a D-Wave client.. FUN...

~~~
jaekwon
So... about that 512 qubit D-Wave in the works... How far are we from breaking
RSA?

~~~
tptacek
The world record for quantum factorization is, what, 27?

RSA is more threatened by conventional number theoretic advances than by
quantum computers.

