The Intelligence Community: National Security Agency
A basic look at the National Security Agency (NSA) including its its formation, structure, and evolution. Also included is the Central Security Service. Part four of a series on the American Intelligence Community.
Crypto City, NSA Headquarters
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The National Security Agency (NSA) is by far one of the most secretive agencies in the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). Nearly impossible to get access to as a regular civilian, it guards some of the most top secret intelligence gathering methods and undisclosed operations in America. It was founded November 4, 1952 by President Harry Truman with the mission, “to protect U.S. national security systems and to produce foreign signals intelligence information.” This mission includes the ideas of information assurance and signals intelligence.
The NSA is part of the military arm of the intelligence community and reports to both the Secretary of Defense and to the Director of National Intelligence. It originally was formed in response to the intelligence requirements of the Cold War, continuing on from the military code breaking techniques of World War II. It is an independent organization but works very closely with the military.
Its two primary goals are very important in modern intelligence. Information assurance is the challenge of preventing foreign intelligence from gaining access to state secrets. Signals intelligence (SIGINT) “collects, processes, and disseminates intelligence information from foreign signals for intelligence and counterintelligence purposes and to support military operations.” These two goals are vital to a third: Network Warfare, which enables our military to fight terrorists and hostile Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO). The NSA uses these abilities to provide much of the SIGINT of the IC. It complements the human intelligence (HUMINT), provided by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the imagery intelligence (IMINT) provided by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
The NSA also contains the Central Security Service (CSS). The CSS’s main goal is to “coordinates and develop policy and guidance on the Signals Intelligence and Information Assurance missions of [the] NSA/CSS to ensure military integration.” It was formed in 1972 to provide closer relations with the cryptological elements of the U.S. Armed Forces and provide civilian leadership with crucial national security information. The Director of the NSA is also the Chief of the CSS.
Executive Order 12333, published in 1981 and amended in 2008, orders the Director of the NSA/CSS to be responsible for SIGINT, act as the National Security Systems manager and report directly to the Secretary of Defense, and to proscribe security regulation for SIGINT. The 2008 amendment integrates the NSA further into the IC structure and strengthens the role of the Director of National Intelligence over it. This was to increase analysis capabilities and speed the bureaucratic process.
Overall, the NSA is directly responsible to the executive branch and the military. Its primary goal has been to provide information to secure the safety of the United States. It uses its SIGINT capabilities to collect and analyze this information. In turn, it is the very secret nature and vast resources of the NSA that allows it to do accomplish this goal and help maintain the security of the United States.
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