Category: IT Computer

If the quantum computing era dawned 3 years ago, its rising sun may have ducked behind a cloud. In 2019, Google researchers claimed they had passed a milestone known as quantum supremacy when their quantum computer Sycamore performed in 200 seconds an abstruse calculation they said would tie up a supercomputer for 10,000 years. Now, scientists in China have done the computation in a few hours with ordinary processors. A supercomputer, they say, could beat Sycamore outright.

“I think they’re right that if they had access to a big enough supercomputer, they could have simulated the … task in a matter of seconds,” says Scott Aaronson, a computer scientist at the University of Texas, Austin. The advance takes a bit of the shine off Google’s claim, says Greg Kuperberg, a mathematician at the University of California, Davis. “Getting to 300 feet from the summit is less exciting than getting to

Written by Dave Nyczepir
Aug 5, 2022 | FEDSCOOP

The IRS Office of Safeguards seeks a contractor to support computer security reviews ensuring outside agencies are protecting the federal tax information provided them, according to a sources sought notice posted Tuesday.

The forthcoming task order, expected in the first quarter of fiscal 2023, will cover preparatory agency outreach, pre-review analysis of areas of concern, automated and manual computer security scans, reporting of results and findings, and responding to agencies’ submissions.

Safeguards verifies more than 300 federal, state and local agencies and contractors are complying with the Internal Revenue Code — when it comes to protecting the confidentiality of and preventing unauthorized access to federal tax information (FTI) — by identifying and mitigating risks of loss, breach or misuse.

“The Office of Safeguards has a need to increase security of FTI and to ensure consistent application of information security standards across