>keep your entire organization in the dark I think employees of the NSA will be used to the idea of compartmentalization. > successfully recruit every academi

>keep your entire organization in the dark I think employees of the NSA will be used to the idea of compartmentalization. > successfully recruit every academic Why that ridiculously high bar? Original article estimates 100 mathematicans have examined factoring in detail. Googling says NSA has 600 on staff. Maybe they just did a lot of work on the problem. Also, a large dedicated group may outperform the scattered efforts distributed throughout the research community. > there's too many moving parts for me to think it likely. Guess you're right, it'd be like as if they [insert implausibly complex project which the Snowden leaks showed they actually do.]