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The National Security Agency/Central Security Service
Central Security Service

The Central Security Service is an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, established in 1972 by a Presidential Directive to promote full partnership between the National Security Agency and the Service Cryptology Elements of the United States Armed Forces....
 (NSA/CSS) is a cryptologic intelligence
Intelligence (information gathering)

Intelligence is not information, but the product of evaluated information, valued for its currency and relevance rather than its detail or accuracy —in contrast with "data" which typically refers to precision or particular information, or "fact," which typically refers to veracity information....
 agency of the United States government
Federal government of the United States

The Federal Government of the United States is the central current reigning United States governmental body, established by the United States Constitution....
, administered as part of the United States Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the Military of the United States....
. Created on November 4, 1952 by President Truman, it is responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, which involves a significant amount of cryptanalysis
Cryptanalysis

Cryptanalysis is the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information, without access to the secret information which is normally required to do so....
. It is also responsible for protecting U.S. government communications and information systems
Information systems

In a general sense, the term information system refers to a system of persons, data records and activities that process the data and information in an organization, and it includes the organization's manual and automated processes....
 from similar agencies elsewhere, which involves a significant amount of cryptography
Cryptography

Cryptography is the practice and study of hiding information. In modern times cryptography is considered a branch of both mathematics and computer science and is affiliated closely with information theory, computer security and engineering....
.






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Encyclopedia


The National Security Agency/Central Security Service
Central Security Service

The Central Security Service is an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, established in 1972 by a Presidential Directive to promote full partnership between the National Security Agency and the Service Cryptology Elements of the United States Armed Forces....
 (NSA/CSS) is a cryptologic intelligence
Intelligence (information gathering)

Intelligence is not information, but the product of evaluated information, valued for its currency and relevance rather than its detail or accuracy —in contrast with "data" which typically refers to precision or particular information, or "fact," which typically refers to veracity information....
 agency of the United States government
Federal government of the United States

The Federal Government of the United States is the central current reigning United States governmental body, established by the United States Constitution....
, administered as part of the United States Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the Military of the United States....
. Created on November 4, 1952 by President Truman, it is responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, which involves a significant amount of cryptanalysis
Cryptanalysis

Cryptanalysis is the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information, without access to the secret information which is normally required to do so....
. It is also responsible for protecting U.S. government communications and information systems
Information systems

In a general sense, the term information system refers to a system of persons, data records and activities that process the data and information in an organization, and it includes the organization's manual and automated processes....
 from similar agencies elsewhere, which involves a significant amount of cryptography
Cryptography

Cryptography is the practice and study of hiding information. In modern times cryptography is considered a branch of both mathematics and computer science and is affiliated closely with information theory, computer security and engineering....
. NSA has recently been directed to help monitor U.S. federal agency computer network
Computer network

A computer network is a group of interconnected computers. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics. This article provides a general overview of some types and categories and also presents the basic components of a network....
s to protect them against attacks. NSA is directed by a lieutenant general
Lieutenant General (United States)

In the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force, lieutenant general is a 3 star rank general officer rank, with the U.S....
 or vice admiral
Vice Admiral

Vice Admiral is a naval rank equivalent to Lieutenant General in seniority. A Vice Admiral is typically senior to a Rear Admiral and junior to an Admiral....
. NSA is a key component of the U.S. Intelligence Community
United States Intelligence Community

The United States Intelligence Community is a cooperative federation of 16 separate Federal government of the United States agencies that work separately and together to conduct Intelligence activities considered necessary for the conduct of foreign relations and the protection of the national security of the United States....
, which is headed by the Director of National Intelligence. The Central Security Service
Central Security Service

The Central Security Service is an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, established in 1972 by a Presidential Directive to promote full partnership between the National Security Agency and the Service Cryptology Elements of the United States Armed Forces....
 is a co-located agency created to coordinate intelligence activities and co-operation between NSA and U.S. military cryptanalysis agencies. Contrary to popular impression, NSA's work is limited to communications intelligence and not field or human intelligence
HUMINT

HUMINT, a Syllabic abbreviation#Types of abbreviations of the words HUMan INTelligence, refers to Intelligence by means of interpersonal contact, as opposed to the List of intelligence gathering disciplines such as SIGINT, IMINT and MASINT....
 activities. By law, NSA's intelligence gathering is limited to foreign communications, but its work includes some domestic surveillance.

Organization

The National Security Agency is divided into two major missions: the Signals Intelligence Directorate (SID), responsible for the production of foreign signals intelligence information, and the Information Assurance Directorate (IAD), responsible for the protection of U.S. information systems.

Effect on non-governmental cryptography

NSA has been involved in debates about public policy, both as a behind-the-scenes adviser to other departments, and directly during and after Vice Admiral Bobby Ray Inman
Bobby Ray Inman

Bobby R. Inman is a retired United States of America admiral who held several influential positions in the U.S. Intelligence community.He served as Director of Office of Naval Intelligence from September 1974 to July 1976, then moved to the Defense Intelligence Agency where he served as Vice Director until 1977....
's directorship. NSA was a major player in the debates of the 1990s regarding the export of cryptography
Export of cryptography

The export of cryptography is the transfer from one country to another of devices and technology related to cryptography.Since World War II, many governments, including the United States and its NATO allies, have regulated the export of cryptography for national security considerations, and, for a time, defined cryptography to be a munition...
. Restrictions on export were reduced but not eliminated in 1996.

Clipper chip

Because of concerns that widespread use of strong cryptography would hamper government use of wiretap
Telephone tapping

Telephone tapping is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The telephone tap or wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connection was applied to the wires of the telephone line being monitored and drew off or tapped a small amount of the electrica...
s, NSA proposed the concept of key escrow
Key escrow

Key escrow is an arrangement in which the keys needed to decrypt encryption data are held in escrow so that, under certain circumstances, an authorized third party may gain access to those keys....
 in 1993 and introduced the Clipper chip
Clipper chip

Not to be confused with the Clipper architectureThe Clipper chip is a chipset that was developed and promoted by the U.S. Government as an encryption device to be adopted by telecommunications companies for voice transmission....
 that would offer stronger protection than DES but would allow access to encrypted data by authorized law enforcement officials. The proposal was strongly opposed and key escrow requirements ultimately went nowhere. However, NSA's Fortezza
Fortezza

Fortezza is an information security system based on a PC Card security token. Each individual who is authorized to see protected information is issued a Fortezza card that stores public key and other data needed to gain access....
 hardware-based encryption cards, created for the Clipper project, are still used within government, and NSA ultimately published the design of the SKIPJACK cipher
Skipjack (cipher)

In cryptography, Skipjack is a block cipher — an algorithm for encryption — developed by the United States National Security Agency ....
 (but not the key exchange protocol) used on the cards.

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

Possibly because of previous controversy, the involvement of NSA in the selection of a successor to DES, the Advanced Encryption Standard
Advanced Encryption Standard

In cryptography, the Advanced Encryption Standard is an encryption standard adopted by the Federal government of the United States. The standard comprises three block ciphers, AES-128, AES-192 and AES-256, adopted from a larger collection originally published as Rijndael. Each AES cipher has a 128 bit block size, with key sizes of 128...
 (AES), was initially limited to hardware
Hardware

Hardware is a general term that refers to the physical cultural artifacts of a technology. It may also mean the physical components of a computer system, in the form of computer hardware....
 performance testing (see AES competition
Advanced Encryption Standard process

The Advanced Encryption Standard , the block cipher ratified as a standard by National Institute of Standards and Technology of the United States , was chosen using a process markedly more open and transparent than its predecessor, the aging Data Encryption Standard ....
). NSA has subsequently certified AES for protection of classified information (for at most two levels, e.g. SECRET information in an unclassified environment) when used in NSA-approved systems. The widely-used SHA hash functions
SHA hash functions

The SHA hash functions are a set of cryptographic hash functions designed by the National Security Agency and published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a U.S....
 were designed by NSA.

Dual EC DRBG random number generator

NSA promoted the inclusion of a random number generator called Dual EC DRBG
Dual EC DRBG

Dual_EC_DRBG is a controversial pseudorandom number generator designed and published by the National Security Agency. It is based on the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem and is one of the four PRNGs standardized in the NIST Special Publication 800-90....
 in the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology
National Institute of Standards and Technology

The National Institute of Standards and Technology , known between 1901 and 1988 as the National Bureau of Standards , is a measurement standards laboratory which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce....
's 2007 guidelines. This led to speculation of a backdoor which would allow NSA access to data encrypted by systems using that random number generator.

Academic research

NSA has invested many millions of dollars in academic research under grant code prefix MDA904, resulting in over 3,000 papers (as of 2007-10-11). NSA funding sources are often declared in the papers, but some researchers try to conceal or otherwise play down the source. NSA/CSS has, at times, attempted to restrict the publication of academic research into cryptography; for example, the Khufu and Khafre
Khufu and Khafre

In cryptography, Khufu and Khafre are two block ciphers designed by Ralph Merkle in 1989 while working at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center....
 block ciphers were voluntarily withheld in response to an NSA request to do so.

Patents

NSA has the ability to file for a patent
Patent

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or his assignee for a term of patent in exchange for a disclosure of an invention....
 from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under gag order
Gag order

A gag order is an order, sometimes a legal order by a court or government, other times a private order by an employer or other institution, restricting information or comment from being made public....
. Unlike normal patents, these are not revealed to the public and do not expire. However, if the Patent Office receives an application for an identical patent from a third party, they will reveal NSA's patent and officially grant it to NSA for the full term on that date.

One of NSA's published patents describes a method of geographically locating
Geolocation

Geolocation is the identification of the real-world geographic location of an Internet-connected computer, mobile device, website visitor or other....
 an individual computer site in an Internet-like network, based on the latency
Lag

In computing and especially computer networks, lag is a term used where the computer freezes and then continues some time later when an action is performed, for example clicking a mouse button....
 of multiple network connections.

NSA programs


ECHELON


NSA/CSS, in combination with the equivalent agencies in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 (Government Communications Headquarters
Government Communications Headquarters

The Government Communications Headquarters is a United Kingdom intelligence agency responsible for providing signals intelligence and information assurance to the Her Majesty's Government and British Armed Forces as required, under the guidance of the Joint Intelligence Committee ....
), Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
 (Communications Security Establishment
Communications Security Establishment

The Communications Security Establishment Canada is the Canada Government of Canada's national Cryptology Intelligence agency. Administered under the Department of National Defence , it is charged with the duty of keeping track of foreign SIGINT , and protecting Canadian government electronic information and communication networks....
), Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
 (Defence Signals Directorate
Defence Signals Directorate

Defence Signals Directorate is an government of Australia intelligence agency responsible for signals intelligence and information security ....
), and New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
 (Government Communications Security Bureau
Government Communications Security Bureau

The Government Communications Security Bureau is an intelligence agency of the New Zealand government.The mission statement is given as:To contribute to the national security of New Zealand through:...
), otherwise known as the UKUSA group, is widely reported to be in command of the operation of the so-called ECHELON
ECHELON

ECHELON is a name used in global media and in popular culture to describe a signals intelligence collection and analysis network operated on behalf of the five signatory states to the UK-USA Security Agreement ....
 system. Its capabilities are suspected to include the ability to monitor a large proportion of the world's transmitted civilian telephone
Telephone

The telephone is a telecommunications device that is used to transmitter and receive electronically or digitally encoded sound between two or more people conversing....
, fax
Fax

Fax is a telecommunications technology used to transfer copies of documents, especially using affordable devices operating over the telephone network....
 and data traffic, according to a December 16, 2005 article in the New York Times.

Technically, almost all modern telephone, internet, fax and satellite communications are exploitable due to recent advances in technology and the 'open air' nature of much of the radio communications around the world. NSA's presumed collection operations have generated much criticism, possibly stemming from the assumption that NSA/CSS represents an infringement of Americans' privacy
Privacy

Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively....
. However, NSA's United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18) strictly prohibits the interception or collection of information about "...U.S. persons, entities, corporations or organizations..." without explicit written legal permission from the United States Attorney General
United States Attorney General

The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the government of the United States....
, when the subject is located abroad, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court when within U.S. Borders. The U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal United States federal courts. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed with th...
 has ruled that intelligence agencies cannot conduct surveillance against American citizens. There are a few extreme circumstances where collecting on a U.S. entity
United States entity

United States entity is a designation given to some entities , e.g. for International Traffic in Arms Regulations purposes.For purposes of the preceding paragraph, a U.S....
 is allowed without a USSID 18 waiver, such as with civilian distress signals, or sudden emergencies such as the September 11, 2001 attacks; however, the USA PATRIOT Act
USA PATRIOT Act

The USA PATRIOT Act, commonly known as the "Patriot Act", is a Act of Congress that President George W. Bush signed into law on October 26, 2001....
 has significantly changed privacy legality.

There have been alleged violations of USSID 18 that occurred in violation of NSA's strict charter prohibiting such acts. In addition, ECHELON is considered with indignation by citizens of countries outside the UKUSA alliance, with numerous allegations that the United States government uses it for motives other than its national security, including political
Politics

Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporation, academia, and religion institutions....
 and industrial espionage
Industrial espionage

Industrial espionage or corporate espionage is espionage conducted for commerce purposes instead of national security purposes.The term is distinct from legal and ethical activities such as examining corporate publications, websites, patent filings, and the like to determine the activities of a corporation ....
. Examples include the gear-less wind turbine
Wind turbine

A wind turbine is a rotating machine which converts the kinetic energy in wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used directly by machinery, such as a pump or grinding stones, the machine is usually called a windmill....
 technology designed by the German firm Enercon
Enercon

Enercon GmbH, based in Aurich, Northern Germany, is the third-largest List of wind turbine manufacturers in the world and has been the market leader in Germany for several years....
 and the speech technology developed by the Belgian firm Lernout & Hauspie
Lernout & Hauspie

Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, or L&H, was a leading Belgium-based speech recognition technology company , founded by Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie, that went bankrupt in 2001....
. An article in the Baltimore Sun reported in 1995 that aerospace company Airbus
Airbus

Airbus Soci?t? par actions simplifi?e is an Aerospace manufacturer subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Toulouse, France, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners....
 lost a $6 billion contract with Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south....
 in 1994 after NSA reported that Airbus officials had been bribing Saudi officials to secure the contract. The chartered purpose of NSA/CSS is solely to acquire significant foreign intelligence information pertaining to National Security or ongoing military intelligence operations.

In his book Firewall
Firewall (Andy McNab novel)

Firewall is a novel written by the ex-Special Air Service member turned author Andy McNab. Released in 2000 it is the third book written about the fictional character Nick Stone ....
, Andy McNab
Andy McNab

Andy McNab Distinguished Conduct Medal Military Medal is a former British soldier, turned novelist. McNab came into public prominence in 1993, when he published his account of the failed Special Air Service mission, Bravo Two Zero....
 speculates that the UKUSA agreement is designed to enable NSA, GCHQ, and other equivalent organizations to gather intelligence on each other's citizens. For example, NSA cannot legally conduct surveillance on American citizens, but GCHQ might do it for them.

Domestic activity

NSA's mission, as set forth in Executive Order 12333
Executive Order 12333

On 4 December 1981 US President Ronald Reagan signedExecutive Order 12333,an Executive Order intended toextend powers and responsibilities of US intelligence community and direct the leaders of U.S....
, is to collect information that constitutes "foreign intelligence or counterintelligence" while not "acquiring information concerning the domestic activities of United States persons". NSA has declared that it relies on the FBI to collect information on foreign intelligence activities within the borders of the USA, while confining its own activities within the USA to the embassies and missions of foreign nations.

NSA's domestic surveillance activities are limited by the requirements imposed by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; however, these protections do not apply to non-U.S. persons located outside of U.S. borders, so the NSA's foreign surveillance efforts are subject to far fewer limitations under U.S. law. The specific requirements for domestic surveillance operations are contained in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 is an Act of Congress which prescribes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and collection of "foreign intelligence information" between "foreign powers" and "agents of foreign powers" ....
 (FISA), which does not extend protection to non-U.S. citizens located outside of U.S. territory.

These activities, especially the publicly acknowledged domestic telephone tapping and call database programs, have prompted questions about the extent of the NSA's activities and concerns about threats to privacy and the rule of law.

Wiretapping programs

Domestic wiretapping under Richard Nixon
In the years after President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States and the only president to resign the office....
 resigned, there were several investigations of suspected misuse of Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency

The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the Federal government of the United States. It is the successor of the Office of Strategic Services formed during World War II to coordinate espionage activities between the branches of the US military services....
 (CIA) and NSA facilities. Senator Frank Church
Frank Church

Frank Forrester Church III was a United States Senate from Idaho, serving four terms from 1957 to 1981. Church was a member of the Idaho Democratic Party....
 headed a Senate investigating committee (the Church Committee
Church Committee

The Church Committee is the common term referring to the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a United States Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church in 1975....
) which uncovered previously unknown activity, such as a CIA plot (ordered by President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, serving from 1961 until John F....
) to assassinate Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary leader who was prime minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976 and then president, premier until his resignation from the office in February 2008....
. The investigation also uncovered NSA's wiretaps on targeted American citizens. After the Church Committee hearings, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 is an Act of Congress which prescribes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and collection of "foreign intelligence information" between "foreign powers" and "agents of foreign powers" ....
 became law, limiting circumstances under which domestic surveillance was allowed.

ThinThread wiretapping and data mining
A wiretapping program named ThinThread
ThinThread

ThinThread is the name of a project that the United States National Security Agency engaged in during the 1990s, according to a May 17, 2006 article in the Baltimore Sun....
 was tested in the late 1990s, but never put into operation. ThinThread contained both advanced data mining
Data mining

Data mining is the process of extracting hidden patterns from data. As more data is gathered, with the amount of data doubling every three years, data mining is becoming an increasingly important tool to transform this data into information....
 capabilities and built-in privacy protections. These privacy protections were abandoned in the post-9/11 effort by President George W. Bush
George W. Bush

George Walker Bush served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was the 46th List of Governors of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being United States presidential inauguration as President on January 20, 2001....
 to improve the intelligence community's responsiveness to terrorism. The research done under this program may have contributed to the technology used in later systems.

Warrantless wiretaps under George W. Bush and Barack Obama

On December 16, 2005, the New York Times reported that, under White House
White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian architecture and has been the executive residence of every U.S....
 pressure and with an executive order from President George W. Bush
George W. Bush

George Walker Bush served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was the 46th List of Governors of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being United States presidential inauguration as President on January 20, 2001....
, the National Security Agency, in an attempt to thwart terrorism
Terrorism

Terrorism, according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, is the systematic use of terror, "violent or destructive acts committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands." At present, there is no internationally agreed upon definition of terrorism....
, had been tapping the telephones
Telephone tapping

Telephone tapping is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The telephone tap or wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connection was applied to the wires of the telephone line being monitored and drew off or tapped a small amount of the electrica...
 of individuals in the U.S. calling persons outside the country, without obtaining warrants from the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court

The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is a United States federal courts authorized under . It was established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ....
, a secret court created for that purpose under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

One such surveillance program, authorized by the United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 of President George Bush, was the Highlander Project undertaken for the National Security Agency by the United States Army
United States Army

The United States Army is the branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for Army operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S....
 513th Military Intelligence Brigade. NSA relayed telephone (including cell phone) conversations obtained from both ground, airborne, and satellite monitoring stations to various U.S. Army Signal Intelligence Officers, including the 201st Military Intelligence Battalion. Conversations of citizens of the United States were intercepted, along with those of other nations.

Proponents of the surveillance program claim that the President has executive authority
Unitary executive theory

The unitary executive theory is a theory of United States Constitution holding that the President of the United States controls the entire executive branch....
 to order such action, arguing that laws such as FISA are overridden by the President's Constitutional powers. In addition, some argued that FISA was implicitly overridden by a subsequent statute, the Authorization for Use of Military Force
Authorization for Use of Military Force

Authorization for Use of Military Force may refer to:*Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 1991 authorizing the First Gulf War, also known as Operation Desert Storm: H.R.J....
, although the Supreme Court's ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Case citation , is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that Guantanamo military commissions set up by the George W....
 deprecates this view. In the August 2006 case ACLU v. NSA
ACLU v. NSA

American Civil Liberties Union et al., v. National Security Agency / Central et al., is a case decided July 6, 2007, in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that the plaintiffs in the case did not have standing to bring the suit against the NSA, because they could not present evidence that they were the tar...
, U.S. District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor
Anna Diggs Taylor

Anna Diggs Taylor is a United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. She graduated from Barnard College in 1954 and Yale Law School in 1957, and worked in the Office of Solicitor for the United States Department of Labor....
 concluded that NSA's warrantless surveillance program was both illegal and unconstitutional. On July 6, 2007 the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Judge Taylor's ruling, reversing her findings.

In a filing in San Francisco federal court in January, 2009, the administration of President Barack Obama
Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the List of Presidents of the United States and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office....
 adopted the same position as his predecessor when it urged U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker to set aside a ruling in a closely watched spy case (Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation et al. v. Obama, et al.) weighing whether a U.S. president may bypass Congress and establish a program of eavesdropping on Americans without warrants. The Obama administration also sided with the former administration in its legal defense of July, 2008 legislation that immunized the nation's telecommunications companies from lawsuits accusing them of complicity in the eavesdropping program, according to testimony by Attorney General Eric Holder
Eric Holder

Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. is the 82nd and current United States Attorney General of the United States and List of African American United States Cabinet Secretaries to hold the position....
.

AT&T Internet monitoring
In May 2006, Mark Klein
Mark Klein

Mark Klein is a former AT&T technician who leaked knowledge of his company's cooperation with the United States National Security Agency in installing network monitoring hardware to spy on American citizens....
, a former AT&T
AT&T

AT&T Inc. is the largest US provider of both local and long distance telephone services, and Digital subscriber line Internet access. AT&T is the second largest provider of wireless service in the United States, with over 77 million wireless customers, and more than 150 million total customers....
 employee, alleged that his company had cooperated with NSA in installing hardware to monitor network communications including traffic between American citizens.

Transaction data mining
NSA is reported to use its computing capability to analyze "transactional" data that it regularly acquires from other government agencies, which gather it under their own jurisdictional authorities. As part of this effort, NSA now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions and travel and telephone records, according to current and former intelligence officials interviewed by the WSJ.

In fiction


Since the existence of NSA has become more widely known in the past few decades, and particularly since the 1990s, the agency has regularly been portrayed in spy fiction. Many such portrayals grossly exaggerate the organization's involvement in the more sensational activities of intelligence agencies. The agency now plays a role in numerous books, films, television shows, computer and video games.

Staff


Directors

  • Nov. 1952 – Nov. 1956 Lt. Gen.
    Lieutenant General (United States)

    In the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force, lieutenant general is a 3 star rank general officer rank, with the U.S....
     Ralph J. Canine, USA
    United States Army

    The United States Army is the branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for Army operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S....
  • Nov. 1956 – Nov. 1960 Lt. Gen.
    Lieutenant General (United States)

    In the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force, lieutenant general is a 3 star rank general officer rank, with the U.S....
     John A. Samford
    John A. Samford

    John Alexander Samford was a former director of the National Security Agency.Samford was born at Hagerman, New Mexico, in 1905. He graduated from high school in 1922 and then spent one year at Columbia College of Columbia University, New York City....
    , USAF
    United States Air Force

    The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Military of the United States and one of the uniformed services of the United States....
  • Nov. 1960 – Jan. 1962 V. Adm.
    Vice Admiral

    Vice Admiral is a naval rank equivalent to Lieutenant General in seniority. A Vice Admiral is typically senior to a Rear Admiral and junior to an Admiral....
     Laurence H. Frost, USN
    United States Navy

    The United States Navy is the navy of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy currently has approximately 331,682 personnel on active duty as of 31 December 2008 and 124,000 in the United States Navy Reserve....
  • Jan. 1962 – June 1965 Lt. Gen.
    Lieutenant General (United States)

    In the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force, lieutenant general is a 3 star rank general officer rank, with the U.S....
     Gordon A. Blake, USAF
    United States Air Force

    The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Military of the United States and one of the uniformed services of the United States....
  • June 1965 – Aug. 1969 Lt. Gen.
    Lieutenant General (United States)

    In the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force, lieutenant general is a 3 star rank general officer rank, with the U.S....
     Marshall S. Carter, USA
    United States Army

    The United States Army is the branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for Army operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S....
  • Aug. 1969 – Aug. 1972 V. Adm.
    Vice Admiral

    Vice Admiral is a naval rank equivalent to Lieutenant General in seniority. A Vice Admiral is typically senior to a Rear Admiral and junior to an Admiral....
     Noel A. M. Gaylor, USN
    United States Navy

    The United States Navy is the navy of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy currently has approximately 331,682 personnel on active duty as of 31 December 2008 and 124,000 in the United States Navy Reserve....
  • Aug. 1972 – Aug. 1973 Lt. Gen.
    Lieutenant General (United States)

    In the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force, lieutenant general is a 3 star rank general officer rank, with the U.S....
     Samuel C. Phillips
    Samuel C. Phillips

    General officer Samuel Cochran Phillips was a United States Air Force four star general who served as Commander, Air Force Systems Command from 1973 to 1975, and as the seventh Director of the National Security Agency from 1972 to 1973....
    , USAF
    United States Air Force

    The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Military of the United States and one of the uniformed services of the United States....
  • Aug. 1973 – July 1977 Lt. Gen.
    Lieutenant General (United States)

    In the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force, lieutenant general is a 3 star rank general officer rank, with the U.S....
     Lew Allen, Jr., USAF
    United States Air Force

    The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Military of the United States and one of the uniformed services of the United States....
  • July 1977 – Apr. 1981 V. Adm.
    Vice Admiral

    Vice Admiral is a naval rank equivalent to Lieutenant General in seniority. A Vice Admiral is typically senior to a Rear Admiral and junior to an Admiral....
     Bobby Ray Inman
    Bobby Ray Inman

    Bobby R. Inman is a retired United States of America admiral who held several influential positions in the U.S. Intelligence community.He served as Director of Office of Naval Intelligence from September 1974 to July 1976, then moved to the Defense Intelligence Agency where he served as Vice Director until 1977....
    , USN
    United States Navy

    The United States Navy is the navy of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy currently has approximately 331,682 personnel on active duty as of 31 December 2008 and 124,000 in the United States Navy Reserve....
  • Apr. 1981 – May 1985 Lt. Gen.
    Lieutenant General (United States)

    In the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force, lieutenant general is a 3 star rank general officer rank, with the U.S....
     Lincoln D. Faurer
    Lincoln D. Faurer

    Lieutenant General Lincoln D. Faurer was director of the National Security Agency and chief of the Central Security Service from 1981 to 1985....
    , USAF
    United States Air Force

    The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Military of the United States and one of the uniformed services of the United States....
  • May 1985 – Aug. 1988 Lt. Gen.
    Lieutenant General (United States)

    In the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force, lieutenant general is a 3 star rank general officer rank, with the U.S....
     William E. Odom, USA
    United States Army

    The United States Army is the branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for Army operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S....
  • Aug. 1988 – May 1992 V. Adm.
    Vice Admiral

    Vice Admiral is a naval rank equivalent to Lieutenant General in seniority. A Vice Admiral is typically senior to a Rear Admiral and junior to an Admiral....
     William O. Studeman, USN
    United States Navy

    The United States Navy is the navy of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy currently has approximately 331,682 personnel on active duty as of 31 December 2008 and 124,000 in the United States Navy Reserve....
  • May 1992 – Feb. 1996 V. Adm.
    Vice Admiral

    Vice Admiral is a naval rank equivalent to Lieutenant General in seniority. A Vice Admiral is typically senior to a Rear Admiral and junior to an Admiral....
     John M. McConnell
    John M. McConnell

    John Michael "Mike" McConnell served as the United States United States Director of National Intelligence from 20 February 2007 to 27 January 2009 during the Bush and seven days of the Presidency of Barack Obama, as well as Director of the National Security Agency from 1992 to 1996, and as a Vice Admiral in the United States Navy....
    , USN
    United States Navy

    The United States Navy is the navy of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy currently has approximately 331,682 personnel on active duty as of 31 December 2008 and 124,000 in the United States Navy Reserve....
  • Feb. 1996 – Mar. 1999 Lt. Gen.
    Lieutenant General (United States)

    In the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force, lieutenant general is a 3 star rank general officer rank, with the U.S....
     Kenneth A. Minihan, USAF
    United States Air Force

    The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Military of the United States and one of the uniformed services of the United States....
  • Mar. 1999 – Apr. 2005 Lt. Gen.
    Lieutenant General (United States)

    In the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force, lieutenant general is a 3 star rank general officer rank, with the U.S....
     Michael V. Hayden
    Michael Hayden

    Michael Vincent Hayden, was a United States Air Force four-star General and former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. From April 21, 2005–May 26, 2006 he was the Principal Deputy United States Director of National Intelligence, a position which once made him "the highest-ranking military intelligence officer in the armed for...
    , USAF
    United States Air Force

    The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Military of the United States and one of the uniformed services of the United States....
  • Apr. 2005 – present Lt. Gen.
    Lieutenant General (United States)

    In the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force, lieutenant general is a 3 star rank general officer rank, with the U.S....
     Keith B. Alexander
    Keith B. Alexander

    Keith B. Alexander , Lieutenant General , United States Army, is the Director of the National Security Agency and Commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Network Warfare....
    , USA
    United States Army

    The United States Army is the branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for Army operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S....


Deputy Directors

  • Dec. 1952 – Nov. 1953 R. Adm. Joseph Wenger
    Joseph Wenger

    Joseph Wenger was a Rear admiral of the U.S. Navy who served as the first Deputy Director of the Armed Forces Security Agency of the Armed Forces Security Agency , and later as the first Deputy Director of the National Security Agency of the National Security Agency, from December 1952 to November 1953, after the separate divisions of the AF...
    , USN
    United States Navy

    The United States Navy is the navy of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy currently has approximately 331,682 personnel on active duty as of 31 December 2008 and 124,000 in the United States Navy Reserve....
  • Nov. 1953 – June 1956 Brig. Gen.
    Brigadier General

    Brigadier General is the lowest ranking General Officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of Colonel and Major General.The rank can be traced back to the militaries of Europe where a brigadier general, or simply a brigadier, would command a brigade in the field....
     John Ackerman
    John Ackerman

    Major_General_ John Ackerman was the second Deputy Director of the National Security Agency of the National Security Agency of the United States....
    , USAF
    United States Air Force

    The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Military of the United States and one of the uniformed services of the United States....
  • Jun. 1956 – Aug. 1956 Maj. Gen.
    Major General

    Major General or Major-General is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of Sergeant Major General. A Major General is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of Lieutenant General and senior to the ranks of Brigadier and Brigadier General....
     John A. Samford
    John A. Samford

    John Alexander Samford was a former director of the National Security Agency.Samford was born at Hagerman, New Mexico, in 1905. He graduated from high school in 1922 and then spent one year at Columbia College of Columbia University, New York City....
    , USAF
    United States Air Force

    The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Military of the United States and one of the uniformed services of the United States....
  • Aug. 1956 – Sep. 1957 Mr. Joseph H. Ream
  • Oct. 1957 – Jul. 1958 Dr. H. T. Engstrom
  • Aug. 1958 – Apr. 1974 Dr. Louis W. Tordella
    Louis W. Tordella

    Louis W. Tordella was the longest serving deputy director of the NSA.Tordella was born in Garrett, Indiana, Indiana, on May 1, 1911 and grew up in the Chicago environs....
    , USN
    United States Navy

    The United States Navy is the navy of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy currently has approximately 331,682 personnel on active duty as of 31 December 2008 and 124,000 in the United States Navy Reserve....
  • Apr. 1974 – May 1978 Mr. Benson K. Buffham
  • May 1978 – Apr. 1980 Mr. Robert E. Drake
  • Apr. 1980 – Jul. 1982 Ms. Ann Z. Caracristi
    Ann Z. Caracristi

    Ann Z. Caracristi is a cryptanalyst, former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency, where she served at various positions over a 40-year career....
  • Jul. 1982 – Jun. 1985 Mr. Robert E. Rich
  • Jun. 1985 – Mar. 1988 Mr. Charles R. Lord
  • Mar. 1988 – Jul. 1990 Mr. Gerald R. Young
  • Jul. 1990 – Feb. 1994 Mr. Robert L. Prestel
  • Feb. 1994 – Oct. 1997 Mr. William P. Crowell
  • Oct. 1997 – June 2000 Ms. Barbara A. McNamara
    Barbara McNamara

    Barbara A. McNamara was the NSA's Deputy Director from October 1997 until June 2000, prior to becoming NSA's Senior U.S. Liaison Officer in London, England After joining the agency in 1963 as a Chinese language linguist, she rose through a number of analytic, operational, and managerial positions before leaving the Operational Directorate i...
  • Jun. 2000 – Aug. 2006 Mr. William B. Black, Jr.
    William B. Black, Jr.

    William B. Black, Jr. is the most recent former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency....
  • Aug. 2006 – present Mr. John C. (Chris) Inglis
    John C. (Chris) Inglis

    John Chris Inglis is the current Deputy Director of the National Security Agency....
    , Brig. Gen. (retired), USAF
    United States Air Force

    The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Military of the United States and one of the uniformed services of the United States....
     & USANG
    Air National Guard

    The Air National Guard , often referred to as the Air Guard, is the air force militia organized by each of the fifty U.S. states, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the territories of Guam and the U.S....


Notable cryptanalysts

  • Lambros D. Callimahos
    Lambros D. Callimahos

    Lambros Demetrios Callimahos was a United States Army cryptography. Born in Alexandria of Greek people parents, the family emigrated to the United States when he was four....
  • Agnes Meyer Driscoll
    Agnes Meyer Driscoll

    Agnes Meyer Driscoll Agnes May Meyer was born in Genesco, Illinois on July 24, 1889. In 1895 She moved toWesterville, Ohio where her father Gustav Meyer had taken a job teaching music at Otterbein College....
  • William F. Friedman
    William F. Friedman

    William Frederick Friedman was a United States Army cryptography. He ran the research division of the Army's Signals Intelligence Service in the 1930s, and its follow-on services into the 1950s....
  • Solomon Kullback
    Solomon Kullback

    Dr Solomon Kullback was a United States cryptanalyst and mathematician.Kullback was one of the first three employees hired by William F. Friedman at the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service in the 1930s, along with Frank Rowlett and Abraham Sinkov....
  • Robert Morris
    Robert Morris (cryptographer)

    Robert "Bob" H. Morris is an United States cryptographer. He received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Harvard University in 1957 and a master's degree in mathematics from Harvard University in 1958....
  • Frank Rowlett
    Frank Rowlett

    Frank Byron Rowlett was an American cryptologist.Rowlett was born in Rose Hill, Virginia and attended Emory & Henry College in Emory, Virginia, where he was a member of the Beta Lambda Zeta fraternity....
  • Abraham Sinkov
    Abraham Sinkov

    Dr. Abraham Sinkov was a US cryptanalysis....
  • Louis W. Tordella
    Louis W. Tordella

    Louis W. Tordella was the longest serving deputy director of the NSA.Tordella was born in Garrett, Indiana, Indiana, on May 1, 1911 and grew up in the Chicago environs....
  • Herbert Yardley
    Herbert Yardley

    Herbert Osborne Yardley was an American cryptologist best known for his book The American Black Chamber . The title of the book refers to MI-8, the cryptographic organization of which Yardley was the founder and head....
  • Nigel de Grey
    Nigel de Grey

    Nigel de Grey was a United Kingdom codebreaker.De Grey joined the British Room 40 codebreaking section in early 1915, from the publishing firm of William Heinemann....


NSA encryption systems


Stu Iiiphones
NSA is responsible for the encryption-related components in these systems:
  • EKMS
    EKMS

    The Electronic Key Management System system is a United States National Security Agency led program responsible for Communications Security key management, accounting and distribution....
     Electronic Key Management System
  • FNBDT Future Narrow Band Digital Terminal
  • Fortezza
    Fortezza

    Fortezza is an information security system based on a PC Card security token. Each individual who is authorized to see protected information is issued a Fortezza card that stores public key and other data needed to gain access....
     encryption based on portable crypto token in PC Card
    PC card

    In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard were defined and developed by a group of industry-leading companies called the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association ....
     format
  • KL-7
    KL-7

    The TSEC/KL-7, code named ADONIS, was a rotor machine encryption system introduced in the 1950s by the United States National Security Agency....
     ADONIS off-line rotor encryption machine (post-WW II to 1980s)
  • KW-26
    KW-26

    The TSEC/KW-26, code named ROMULUS, was an cryptography used by the U.S. Government and, later, by NATO countries. It was developed in the 1950s by the National Security Agency to secure fixed teletype circuits that operated 24 hours a day....
     ROMULUS electronic in-line teletype encryptor (1960s–1980s)
  • KW-37
    KW-37

    The KW-37, code named JASON, was an encryption system developed In the 1950s by the U.S. National Security Agency to protect fleet broadcasts of the U.S....
     JASON fleet broadcast encryptor (1960s–1990s)
  • KY-57
    KY-57

    The Speech Security Equipment , TSEC/KY-57, is a portable, tactical cryptography device in the VINSON family, designed to provide voice encryption for a range of military communication devices such as radio or telephone....
     VINSON tactical radio voice encryptor
  • KG-84
    KG-84

    The KG-84A and KG-84C are encryption devices developed by the United States National Security Agency to ensure secure transmission of digital data....
     Dedicated Data Encryption/Decryption
  • SINCGARS
    SINCGARS

    SINCGARS is a Combat-net radio currently used by U.S. and allied military forces. The radios, which handle voice and data communications, are designed to be reliable, secure and easily maintained....
     tactical radio with cryptographically controlled frequency hopping
  • STE secure terminal equipment
  • STU-III
    STU-III

    STU-III is a family of secure telephones introduced in 1987 by the NSA for use by the United States government, its contractors, and its allies....
     secure telephone unit, currently being phased out by the STE
  • TACLANE
    TACLANE

    A TACLANE is a network encryption device developed by the National Security Agency to provide network communications security on Internet Protocol and Asynchronous Transfer Mode computer network for the individual user or for enclaves of users at the same security level....
     product line by General Dynamics
    General Dynamics

    General Dynamics Corporation is a defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2008 it is the fifth largest defense contractor in the world....


Some past NSA SIGINT activities

  • VENONA project
    Venona project

    The Venona project was a long-running and highly secret collaboration between intelligence agencies of the United States and United Kingdom that involved the cryptanalysis of messages sent by several Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies of the Soviet Union, mostly during World War II....
  • Gulf of Tonkin Incident
    Gulf of Tonkin Incident

    The Gulf of Tonkin Incident is the name given to two separate incidents involving naval forces of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin....
  • USS Liberty incident
    USS Liberty incident

    The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a Neutral country United States Navy technical research ship, USS Liberty , by Israeli Air Force jet fighter planes and motor torpedo boats on June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War....
  • USS Pueblo (AGER-2)
    USS Pueblo (AGER-2)

    USS Pueblo is a Banner class environmental research ship technical research ship which was boarded and captured by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on 23 January 1968 in what is known as the Pueblo incident or alternatively as the Pueblo crisis or Pueblo affair....
  • Operation Ivy Bells
    Operation Ivy Bells

    Operation Ivy Bells was a joint United States Navy and National Security Agency mission whose objective was to place Telephone tappings on Soviet Union Submarine communications cable during the Cold War....
  • KAL 007 shootdown incident. The combined U.S. and Russian Federation transcripts of the shootdown are available online .


See also

  • List of United States federal law enforcement agencies
    List of United States federal law enforcement agencies

    The federal Government of the United States empowers a wide range of law enforcement agency to maintain law and public order related to matters affecting the country as a whole....


  • James Bamford
    James Bamford

    James Bamford is an American bestselling author and journalist who writes about United States intelligence agency. He was raised in Natick, Massachusetts, spent three years in the United States Navy as an intelligence analyst during the Vietnam War, and used the GI Bill to earn his law degree from Suffolk University Law School in Boston....
  • Biometric Consortium
    Biometric Consortium

    The Biometric Consortium is a Federal government of the United States sponsored consortia created by the National Security Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology ....
  • Bureau of Intelligence and Research
    Bureau of Intelligence and Research

    The Bureau of Intelligence and Research is an intelligence bureau in the U.S. State Department tasked with analyzing information. Originally founded as the Research and Analysis Branch of the Office of Strategic Services, it was transferred to the State Department at the end of World War II....
     (INR)
  • Central Intelligence Agency
    Central Intelligence Agency

    The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the Federal government of the United States. It is the successor of the Office of Strategic Services formed during World War II to coordinate espionage activities between the branches of the US military services....
     (CIA)
  • Central Security Service
    Central Security Service

    The Central Security Service is an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, established in 1972 by a Presidential Directive to promote full partnership between the National Security Agency and the Service Cryptology Elements of the United States Armed Forces....
     (CSS)
  • Counterintelligence Field Activity
    Counterintelligence Field Activity

    Counterintelligence Field Activity was a United States Department of Defense agency whose size and budget were classified. The CIFA was created by a directive from the Secretary of Defense on February 19, 2002....
     (DoD - CIFA)
  • Defence Signals Directorate
    Defence Signals Directorate

    Defence Signals Directorate is an government of Australia intelligence agency responsible for signals intelligence and information security ....
     (DSD) of Australia
  • Defense Intelligence Agency
    Defense Intelligence Agency

    The Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA, is a major producer and manager of military intelligence for the United States Department of Defense, employing over 11,000 military and civilian employees worldwide....
     (DIA)
  • Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
  • Diplomatic Security Service
    Diplomatic Security Service

    The U.S. Diplomatic Security Service is the federal law enforcement arm of the United States Department of State. The majority of its Special Agents are members of the United States Foreign Service and federal law enforcement agents at the same time, making them unique....
     (DSS)
  • Espionage
    Espionage

    Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secrecy or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information....
  • Federal Bureau of Investigation
    Federal Bureau of Investigation

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the primary unit in the United States United States Department of Justice, serving as both a Law enforcement agency body and a domestic intelligence agency....
     (FBI)
  • Government Communications Headquarters
    Government Communications Headquarters

    The Government Communications Headquarters is a United Kingdom intelligence agency responsible for providing signals intelligence and information assurance to the Her Majesty's Government and British Armed Forces as required, under the guidance of the Joint Intelligence Committee ....
     (GCHQ) of the UK
    United Kingdom

    The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
  • Narus
    Narus

    Narus is a US private company founded in 1997 by Ori Cohen, who had been in charge of technology development for VDONet, an early media streaming pioneer....
     ST-6400 and NarusInsight by Narus Ltd.
  • National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
    National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

    The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is an List of United States federal agencies of the United States Government with the primary mission of collection, analysis, and distribution of geospatial intelligence in support of national security....
     (NGA)
  • National Reconnaissance Office
    National Reconnaissance Office

    The National Reconnaissance Office , located in Chantilly, Virginia, is one of the U.S. intelligence community in the U.S. It designs, builds and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the United States government....
     (NRO)
  • National Security Whistleblowers Coalition
    National Security Whistleblowers Coalition

    The National Security Whistleblowers Coalition , founded in 2004 by former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds in league with over 50 former and current United States government officials from more than a dozen agencies, is an independent, nonpartisan alliance of whistleblowers who have come forward to address weaknesses of US security agencies....
  • Ronald Pelton
    Ronald Pelton

    Ronald William Pelton was an NSA spy who was convicted in 1986 of spying for and selling secrets to the Soviet Union. He reportedly has a photographic memory as he passed no documents to the Soviets....
  • John Anthony Walker
    John Anthony Walker

    John Anthony Walker, Jr. is a former Warrant Officer #Navy and communications specialist for the U.S. Navy convicted for selling his services as a spy to the Soviet Union from 1968 to 1985, the height of the Cold War era....
  • Project SHAMROCK
    Project SHAMROCK

    Project SHAMROCK, considered to be the sister project for Project MINARET, was an espionage exercise that involved the accumulation of all telegraphic data entering into or exiting from the United States....
  • SELinux
  • SIGINT
    SIGINT

    Signals intelligence is list of intelligence gathering disciplines by interception of signals, whether between people or between machines , or mixtures of the two....
     (and COMINT)
  • Skipjack (cipher)
    Skipjack (cipher)

    In cryptography, Skipjack is a block cipher — an algorithm for encryption — developed by the United States National Security Agency ....
  • TEMPEST
    TEMPEST

    TEMPEST is a codename referring to investigations and studies of compromising emanations . Compromising emanations are defined as unintentional Intelligence -bearing signals which, if intercepted and analyzed, may disclose the information transmitted, received, handled, or otherwise processed by any information-processing equipment....
     prevention of compromising emanations
  • Type 1 encryption
    Type 1 encryption

    In cryptography, a Type 1 product is a device or system certified by the National Security Agency for use in cryptography securing classified information United States Government information....


NSA computers

  • FROSTBURG
    FROSTBURG

    FROSTBURG was a Connection Machine 5 supercomputer used by the US National Security Agency to perform higher-level mathematical calculations....
  • HARVEST
    Harvest

    In agriculture, the harvest is the process of gathering mature crop from the field s. Reaping is the cutting of grain or Pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper....


Further reading

  • Bamford, James
    James Bamford

    James Bamford is an American bestselling author and journalist who writes about United States intelligence agency. He was raised in Natick, Massachusetts, spent three years in the United States Navy as an intelligence analyst during the Vietnam War, and used the GI Bill to earn his law degree from Suffolk University Law School in Boston....
    , The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping of America, Doubleday, 2008, ISBN 978-0-3855-2132-1.
  • Bamford, James
    James Bamford

    James Bamford is an American bestselling author and journalist who writes about United States intelligence agency. He was raised in Natick, Massachusetts, spent three years in the United States Navy as an intelligence analyst during the Vietnam War, and used the GI Bill to earn his law degree from Suffolk University Law School in Boston....
    , Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency, Doubleday, 2001, ISBN 0-385-49907-8.
  • Bamford, James
    James Bamford

    James Bamford is an American bestselling author and journalist who writes about United States intelligence agency. He was raised in Natick, Massachusetts, spent three years in the United States Navy as an intelligence analyst during the Vietnam War, and used the GI Bill to earn his law degree from Suffolk University Law School in Boston....
    , The Puzzle Palace, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-006748-5.*
  • Levy, Steven
    Steven Levy

    Steven Levy is an United States journalist who has written several books on computers, technology, cryptography, the Internet, cybersecurity, and privacy....
    , Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government Saving Privacy in the Digital Age
    Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government Saving Privacy in the Digital Age

    Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government Saving Privacy in the Digital Age is a book written by Steven Levy about cryptography, and was published in 2001....
     discussion of the development of non-government cryptography, including many accounts of tussles with the NSA.
  • Radden Keefe, Patrick, Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping, Random House, ISBN 1-4000-6034-6.
  • Liston, Robert A., The Pueblo Surrender: a Covert Action by the National Security Agency, ISBN 0-87131-554-8.
  • Kahn, David
    David Kahn

    David Kahn is a US historian, journalist and writer. He has written extensively on the history of cryptography and military intelligence.Kahn's first book was The Codebreakers , widely considered to be a definitive account of the history of cryptography up to the mid-1960s....
    , The Codebreakers
    The Codebreakers

    The Codebreakers - The Story of Secret Writing is a book by David Kahn, published in 1967 comprehensively chronicling the history of cryptography from ancient Egypt to the time of its writing....
    , 1181 pp., ISBN 0-684-83130-9. Look for the 1967 rather than the 1996 edition.
  • Tully, Andrew, The Super Spies: More Secret, More Powerful than the CIA, 1969, LC 71080912.
  • Bamford, James
    James Bamford

    James Bamford is an American bestselling author and journalist who writes about United States intelligence agency. He was raised in Natick, Massachusetts, spent three years in the United States Navy as an intelligence analyst during the Vietnam War, and used the GI Bill to earn his law degree from Suffolk University Law School in Boston....
    , New York Times, December 25, 2005; The Agency That Could Be Big Brother. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/25/weekinreview/25bamford.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=The%20Agency%20That%20Could%20Be%20Big%20Brother.&st=cse
  • Sam Adams, War of numbers Steerforth; New Ed edition (June 1, 1998)
  • John Prados, The Soviet estimate: U.S. intelligence analysis & Russian military strength, hardcover, 367 pages, ISBN 0-385-27211-1, Dial Press (1982).
  • Walter Laqueur
    Walter Laqueur

    Walter Zeev Laqueur is an United States historian and political commentator.He was born in Breslau, Germany , to a Jewish family. In 1938 Laqueur left Germany for the British Mandate of Palestine....
    , A World of secrets
  • Sherman Kent
    Sherman Kent

    Sherman Kent, , was a Yale University history professor who during World War II pioneered many of the methods of intelligence analysis. He is often described as "the father of intelligence analysis"....
    , Strategic Intelligence for American Public Policy


External links

  • —newly declassified book-length report provided by .
  • David Alan Jordan, - Boston College Law Review, Vol. 47, 2006
  • Google Maps
    Google Maps

    Google Maps is a free web mapping service application and technology provided by Google that powers many map-based services including the Google Maps website, #Google Ride Finder, Google Transit and embedded maps on third-party websites via the Google Maps Application programming interface....
  • December 16, 2005
  • December 23, 2005
  • Kurt Nimmo. , Another Day in the Empire, December 24, 2005.
  • Kevin Zeese. , Raw Story, January 10, 2006.
  • January 2004
  • Joanne Leyland, , The Royalist, 13 December 2006. URL retrieved on January 6, 2007.
  • James Bamford
    James Bamford

    James Bamford is an American bestselling author and journalist who writes about United States intelligence agency. He was raised in Natick, Massachusetts, spent three years in the United States Navy as an intelligence analyst during the Vietnam War, and used the GI Bill to earn his law degree from Suffolk University Law School in Boston....
      The Atlantic April 2006
  • ACLU KUOW-FM
    KUOW-FM

    KUOW-FM is a National Public Radio affiliate radio station in Seattle, Washington, Washington. It is the second most listened to radio station in the Seattle-Tacoma, Washington market and the most listened to news radio station in the state....
     PRX
    Public Radio Exchange

    The Public Radio Exchange is a nonprofit web-based platform for digital distribution, review, and licensing of radio programs. The organization claims to be the largest on-demand catalog of public radio programs available for broadcast and Internet use....
     NPR February 24, 2007 (53: minutes)
  • , PBS
    Public Broadcasting Service

    The Public Broadcasting Service is an United States non-profit public broadcasting television service with 354 member TV stations in the United States....
     and WGBH-TV, Nova
    NOVA (TV series)

    Nova is a popular science television series from the United States produced by WGBH-TV Boston. It can be seen on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries....
     program series. February 3, 2009.