Snowden's ex-employer seeks quantum info. physicist

Booz Allen Hamilton, the United States company that employed NSA bulk surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden, is looking for a quantum information physicist.

Quantum information technology is currently intensely researched, among other things, to provide secure encryption that is capable of discovering eavesdropping when wiretapping changes the state of the communications link.

Quantum computers are expected to provide breakthroughs in encryption breaking, as they are capable of more than one simultaneous state and thus able to solve specific problems much faster than traditional computers.

The ad shows the prospective employee's job will be to "serve as a consultant to government, science and technology clients".

Other tasks include contributing to advancing "state-of-the-art quantum sciences by combining strategic planning and technical analysis" as well as sundry research tasks.

Candidates who are at the PhD in physics level of education will be subjected to security investigation and may need to meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information, according to the ad.

Snowden, who is facing espionage charges in the United States after leaking detailed top secret information on the United States PRISM internet spying programme, is trying to evade extradition by hiding in at the Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport, having fled there from Hong Kong.