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The National Security Agency / Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) is believed to be the largest United States government intelligence agency. It is responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and for the security of U.S. government communications against similar agencies elsewhere. Officially established on November 4, 1952, the NSA is a component of the Department of Defense and has always been directed by a three-star flag or general officer. NSA is a key component of the United States Intelligence Community headed by the Director of National Intelligence.

Its eavesdropping mission includes radio broadcasting, both from various organizations and individuals, the Internet, telephone calls, and other intercepted forms of communication. Its secure communications mission includes military, diplomatic, and all other sensitive, confidential or secret government communications. Despite having been described as the world's largest single employer of mathematicians Introduction to NSA/CSS, NSA. Retrieved 15 May 2006., the owner of the single largest group of supercomputers, it has had a remarkably low profile until the break of the 21st century. For a long time its existence was not even acknowledged by the U.S. government. It was often said, half-jokingly, that "NSA" stood for "No Such Agency," and also, as "Never Say Anything," primarily for its employees.

Because of its listening task, the NSA/CSS has been heavily involved in cryptanalytic research, continuing the work of its predecessor agencies which had been responsible for breaking many World War II codes and ciphers (see, for instance, Purple code, Venona, and JN-25).

Headquarters for the National Security Agency is at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, approximately ten miles (16 km) northeast of Washington, DC. NSA has its own exit off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway labeled "NSA Employees Only" which is usually guarded by two Maryland State Police vehicles. The scale of the operations at the NSA is hard to determine from unclassified data, but one clue is the electricity usage of NSA's headquarters. NSA's budget for electricity exceeds US$21 million per year , making it the second largest electricity consumer in the entire state of Maryland. Photos have shown there to be 18,000 parking spaces at the site, although most guesses have put the NSA's total workforce at around double the number cited worldwide.

Its secure government communications work has involved NSA in numerous technology areas including the design of specialized communications hardware and software, production of dedicated semiconductors (there is a chip fabrication plant at Ft. Meade), and advanced cryptography research. The agency contracts with the private sector in the fields of research and equipment.

Agency history

The origins of the National Security Agency can be traced to an organization originally established within the Department of Defense, under the command of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA), on May 20, 1949. The AFSA was to be responsible for directing the communications and electronic intelligence activities of the military intelligence units - the Army Security Agency, Naval Security Group and the Air Force Security Service. However, the agency had little power and lacked a centralized coordination mechanism. The creation of NSA resulted from a December 10, 1951, memo sent by CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith to James B. Lay, Executive Secretary of the National Security Council. The memo observed that "control over, and coordination of, the collection and processing of Communications Intelligence had proved ineffective" and recommended a survey of communications intelligence activities. The proposal was approved on December 13, 1951, and the study authorized on December 28, 1951. The report was completed by June 13, 1952. Generally known as the "Brownell Committee Report," after committee chairman Herbert Brownell, it surveyed the history of U.S. communications intelligence activities and suggested the need for a much greater degree of coordination and direction at the national level. As the change in the security agency's name indicated, the role of the NSA was extended beyond the armed forces.

The creation of the NSA was authorized in a letter written by President Harry S. Truman in June of 1952. The agency was formally established through a revision of National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) 9 on October 24, 1952, and officially came into existence on November 4, 1952. President Truman's letter was itself classified and remained unknown to the public for more than a generation.

Involvement with non-government 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's directorship.

The NSA was embroiled in controversy concerning its involvement in the creation of the Data Encryption Standard (DES), a standard and public block cipher used by the US government. During development by IBM in the 1970s, the NSA recommended changes to the algorithm. There was suspicion the agency had deliberately weakened the algorithm sufficiently to enable it to eavesdrop if required. The suspicions were that a critical component — the so-called S-boxes — had been altered to insert a "backdoor"; and that the key length had been reduced, making it easier for the NSA to discover the key using massive computing power.

However, the public reinvention of the technique known as differential cryptanalysis suggested that one of the changes (to the S-boxes) had actually been suggested to harden the algorithm against this -- then publicly unknown -- method of attack; differential cryptanalysis remained publicly unknown until it was independently reinvented and published some decades later. On the other hand the shortening of the cryptographic key from 128 bits, as recommended in IBM submission, to an effective key of only 56 bits in length, can only be interpreted as an intentional weakening of the algorithm by the NSA, making possible an exhaustive search for the key by those with sufficient computer power and funding.

Possibly because of previous controversy, the involvement of NSA in the selection of a successor to DES, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), was limited to hardware performance testing (see AES competition).

NSA was a major player in the debates of the mid to late 1990s regarding the export of cryptography. Cryptographic software and hardware had long been classed with fighter planes, tanks, cannons, and atomic bombs as controllable munitions.

The NSA/CSS has, at times, attempted to restrict the publication of academic research into cryptography; for example, the Khufu and Khafre block ciphers.

Patents

The NSA has the ability to file for a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office under gag order. Unlike a normal patent, the NSA's is never revealed to the public and never expires. However, if the Patent Office receives an application for an identical patent from a third party, they will reveal the NSA's patent and officially grant it to the NSA for the full term on that date.

Domestic Activity

The NSA's charter, executive order 12333, authorizes it to collect information that constitutes "foreign intelligence or counterintelligence" while prohibiting "acquiring information concerning the domestic activities of United States persons". Traditionally the NSA has declared that it relies on the FBI, who are responsible for domestic intelligence, to collect information on foreign intelligence activities that occur within the borders of the USA while confining its own activities within the USA to the embassies and missions of foreign nations.

The activities described below, especially the publicly acknowledged Domestic Phone tapping and Domestic Call Database programs, have caused widespread privacy concerns and worries about the extent of the NSA's powers.

ECHELON

NSA/CSS, in combination with the equivalent agencies in the United Kingdom (Government Communications Headquarters), Canada (Communications Security Establishment), Australia (Defence Signals Directorate), and New Zealand (Government Communications Security Bureau), and otherwise known as the UKUSA group, is believed to be responsible for, among other things, the operation of the ECHELON system. Its capabilities are suspected to include the ability to monitor a large proportion of the world's transmitted civilian telephone, fax and data traffic. The system has as one of its most important bases at the nominally RAF-run station at Menwith Hill near Harrogate, Yorkshire. Another site, at Sugar Grove, West Virginia , intercepts all international communications entering the eastern U.S., while a site near Yakima, Washington intercepts traffic in the western U.S., according to a December 25, 2005 article in the New York Times.

Technically, almost all modern telephone, internet, fax & satellite communications are exploitable due to recent advances in technology and the 'open air' nature of much of the radio communications around the world. The NSA's presumed collection operations have generated much criticism, possibly stemming from the assumption that the NSA/CSS represents an infringement of Americans' privacy. However, the NSA's United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18) strictly prohibits the interception or collection of information about "...US persons, entities, corporations or organizations..." without explicit written legal permission from the Attorney General of the United States. The Supreme Court has ruled that intelligence agencies cannot conduct surveillance against American citizens. There are of course a few extreme circumstances where collecting on a US entity would be allowed without a USSID 18 waiver, such as with civilian distress signals, or sudden emergencies (such as 9/11; however, the USA PATRIOT Act has significantly changed privacy legality).

In the past, there have been alleged instances of improper violations of USSID 18 that occurred in violation of the NSA's strict charter prohibiting such acts. In addition, ECHELON is considered with indignation by citizens of countries outside the UKUSA alliance, with widespread suspicion that the United States government uses it for motives other than its national security, including political and industrial espionage. The chartered purpose of the NSA/CSS is solely to acquire significant foreign intelligence information pertaining to National Security or ongoing military intelligence operations.

ThinThread

A wiretapping program named ThinThread was tested in the late 1990s, according to information obtained by the Baltimore Sun in 2006. This program may have contributed to the underlying technology used in later systems, but its safeguards on privacy were abandoned after the 9/11 attacks.

Phone taps

On December 16, 2005, the New York Times printed a story asserting that, under White House pressure and with an executive order from President George W. Bush, the National Security Agency, in an attempt to thwart terrorism, had been conducting warrantless phone-taps on individuals in the U.S. calling persons outside the country. James Risen & Eric Lichtblau (December 16, 2005), Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts, New York Times According to the Times:

The White House asked The New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. After meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns, the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting. Some information that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted.

News of tapping sparked an outcry from members of Congress and organizations which regard such actions as a violation of the law and an abuse of constitutional rights. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that "there is no doubt this is inappropriate" and "clearly and categorically wrong" and that he would hold hearings into the matter early in 2006. His call for investigations was echoed by Congressman Rob Simmons (R-CT), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee. "Was the eavesdropping narrowly designed to go after possible terrorist threats in the United States or was it much, much more?" he asked in a statement. Like ECHELON (see above), some feel that the White House policy contradicts United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 which states: Communications from, to, or about a U.S. person line redacted may not be intentionally collected without further authorities. Surveillance to prevent terrorism is covered in Title II of the USA Patriot Act.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan refused to comment on the story on December 16, claiming "there’s a reason why we don’t get into discussing ongoing intelligence activities, because it could compromise our efforts to prevent attacks from happening." Press Briefing by Scott McClellan, December 16, 2005, Whitehouse Press Briefing. The next morning, December 17, the President gave an 8-minute live TV address instead of his normal weekly radio address and confirmed that he had authorized the warrantless searches and phone taps. Visibly angry, he defended his actions as "crucial to our national security" and that the American people expected him to "do everything in my power, under our laws and Constitution, to protect them and their civil liberties" as long as there was a "continuing threat" from al-Qaida. The President also had harsh words for those who broke the story, saying they acted illegally. "The unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk," he said. "US eavesdropping program 'saves lives': Bush" (December 18, 2005), Sydney Morning Herald

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) called the president's remarks "breathtaking in how extreme they were" in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. He added, "If that's true, he doesn't need the Patriot Act because he can just make it up as he goes along. I tell you, he's President George Bush, not King George Bush. This is not the system of government we have and that we fought for." Feingold was just as harsh in an interview with CNN. "We have a president, not a king," he said. "Executive decision to spy" (December 18, 2005), Newsday Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, added later, "The Bush administration seems to believe it is above the law."

Critics of the NYT disclosure claim that the President has the authority to order such action by virtue of Executive Order 12333 signed by President Reagan in 1981.

The United States Department of Justice opened an investigation in late December 2005 to try to determine the source of the leak to the New York Times.

Call Database

On May 10, 2006, USA Today reported that the NSA is operating "the largest database ever assembled in the world", containing call detail records of all calls (domestic and international) placed through AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth. After admitting to the incident the Administration now claims no personal names, addresses or other personal information was being collected. Like other major phone companies, Qwest Communications has been asked to provide customer records but refused on legal grounds, citing the need for a warrant.*

Previous NSA tapping of US citizens

In the years after President Nixon resigned, there were several investigations of suspected misuse of CIA and NSA facilities. Senator Frank Church headed a Senate investigating committee which uncovered previously unknown activity, such as a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro by the CIA, which had been ordered by President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. During the investigation, it was also found that the NSA was actively tapping the phones of American citizens.

Staff

Directors

USA, USAF, and USN are the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Navy, respectively.

Deputy Directors

Notable cryptanalysts

NSA encryption systems

Main article: NSA encryption systems

NSA is responsible for the encryption-related components in these systems:

  • EKMS Electronic Key Management System
  • FNBDT Future Narrow Band Digital Terminal
  • Fortezza encryption based on portable crypto token in PC Card format
  • KL-7 ADONIS off-line rotor encryption machine (post-WW II to 1980s)
  • KW-26 ROMULUS electronic in-line teletype encryptor (1960s–1980s)
  • KW-37 JASON fleet broadcast encryptor (1960s–1990s)
  • KY-57 VINSON tactical radio voice encryptor
  • SINCGARS tactical radio with cryptographically controlled frequency hopping
  • STE secure telephone equipment
  • STU-III older secure telephone unit

Past and present SIGINT activities

In fiction

Main article: NSA in fiction

Since the existence of the NSA has become more widely known in the last few decades, and particularly since the 1990s, the agency has regularly been portrayed in spy fiction. Most such portrayals probably grossly exaggerate the organization's involvement in the more sensational activities of intelligence agencies. An indication of the agency's increased "fame" is its named appearance in the Bond franchise in 2002's Die Another Day; a Bond girl portrayed by Halle Berry worked for them. The NSA has been featured in many other films, television shows, books, and video games.

Notes

See also

NSA computers

Further reading

External links

National Security Agency | 1949 establishments | Supercomputer sites

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "National Security Agency".

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