NSA confirms plans for Utah data center

SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- The National Security Agency says the Utah National Guard's Camp Williams will be the site of its new data center.

The federal agency confirmed Friday its new facility will be built in Utah as part of its efforts to process information collected by U.S. spy agencies, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Friday increasing the agency's data-processing capabilities was necessary given the growing number of cyber attacks targeting the United States.

"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," Hatch said at a ceremonial announcement in Salt Lake City. "

The Tribune said the plans for the new NSA site, specifics details of which were not reported, follow a stern warning from the Jason defense advisory group regarding intelligence gathered from U.S. sensors.

"As the amount of data captured by these sensors grows, the difficulty in storing, analyzing, and fusing the sensor data becomes increasingly significant," the group said, adding millions of terabytes of data is wasted under current methods.