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One million square feet of computers.
Two hundred workers.
As the National Security Agency prepares to break ground on a new facility in Utah, the size of the structure -- and scantiness of its staff -- is a fitting metaphor for a new intelligence reality.
The enormity of information being collected by American spy agencies is staggering -- and there simply aren't enough human analysts to go around.
The secretive NSA on Friday made public what has for months been Utah's worst-kept military secret: It plans to build an enormous new data center at the Utah National Guard's Camp Williams. The facility could consume as much power as every home in Salt Lake City as it processes information collected in an effort to prevent attacks on the nation's cyber networks.
But only a very small slice of the information stored at the center in southern Salt Lake County will ever be scanned by human eyes. And that's the reality for most of what is collected by the nation's other spy agencies as well.
In a report commissioned by the Department of Defense last year, the Jason defense advisory group warned that the millions of terabytes of data coming into U.S. spy agencies through ever-improving sensors are being wasted.
"As the amount of data captured by these sensors grows, the difficulty in storing, analyzing, and fusing the sensor data becomes increasingly significant," the report concluded. It cited Massachusetts Institute
But speaking at Friday's ceremonial announcement in the Utah State Capitol Gold Room, Sen. Bob Bennett said the United States has no choice but to continue enhancing its data processing efforts in a constant "battle of the sword and the shield."
And his Senate colleague, Orrin Hatch, agreed. "As the longest serving member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I can confirm without equivocation that the threats to our nation's digital infrastructure are real and growing," he said. "Cyber attacks are being utilized by sophisticated, organized crime networks and have even become the instruments of war."
For a nation at war, the influx of information is a blessing and a curse, said George Eanes, vice president of business development at Modus Operandi, a Florida software company that serves the defense intelligence community. "We have been blessed with a lot more sensor-type capabilities," he said. "That can be a big advantage to have in the theater, but it's just data. You still got to have the humans in the loop before you make any decisions."
In a time in which many government agencies are cutting back, the NSA and other spy agencies have added tens of thousands of workers in recent years. But with computer processing power doubling every few years -- and given the huge advances in information collection -- it's unlikely that there will ever be enough analysts to go around.
That's a problem that Utah Guard commander Brian Tarbet is all too familiar with.
"There is simply a shortage of military intelligence talent," said Tarbet, who served nearly a quarter century as a military intelligence officer. "They are a perishable resource -- bright young people who have all manner of opportunities. It's tough for us to keep up our strength."
And that's been especially true as Tarbet's intelligence gatherers try to keep up with demand for their services.
"We simply vacuum up more information today," Tarbet said. "That's more information from which you have to separate the wheat from the chaff. But how much of that is good intelligence? That's the trick."
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An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 workers will be involved in the construction of the National Security Agency's $1.5 billion data center at Camp Williams. An "industry day" will be held Nov. 5 so businesses can learn more about how to participate. A time and location have not yet been announced.
