FutureWatch: The Most Powerful Spy Center In the World

Deep in the Utah desert, at the feet of the Wasatch mountain range, is one of the most secret, most guarded, most secure facilities in the world. Here is where everything you say is analyzed to search for security threats against the United States.

It's the National Security Agency's Utah Data Center, a $2 billion facility that will capture, record and scrutinize every communication in the world, from emails to phone calls to text messages to chats. It will also crack codes. According to Threat Level, the encryption cracking will be the most powerful in the world, and will help get into "financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, confidential personal communications."

There will be four data rooms, 25,000-square-foot each, full of servers, cooled down by 60,000 tons of machinery and 1.7 million gallons of water per day. The site has its own 65-megawatt electrical substation, as well as backup generators that can power the whole thing for three days, uninterrupted. Just the video security system alone costs more than $10 million. (more)