20-06-2009, 08:09 AM
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States government, administered as part of the United States Department of Defense. Created on November 4, 1952 by President Harry S. Truman, it is responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, which involves cryptanalysis. It is also responsible for protecting U.S. government communications and information systems from similar agencies elsewhere, which involves cryptography. As of 2008, NSA has been directed to help monitor U.S. federal agency computer networks to protect them against attacks.[1] NSA is directed by a lieutenant general or vice admiral. NSA is a key component of the U.S. Intelligence Community, which is headed by the Director of National Intelligence. The Central Security Service is a co-located agency created to coordinate intelligence activities and co-operation between NSA and U.S. military cryptanalysis agencies. NSA's work is limited to communications intelligence; it does not perform field or human intelligence activities. By law, NSA's intelligence gathering is limited to foreign communications, but its work has begun to include some domestic surveillance.[2]
Organization
The National Security Agency is divided into two major missions: the Signals Intelligence Directorate (SID), which produces foreign signals intelligence information, and the Information Assurance Directorate (IAD), which protects U.S. information systems.[3]
Role
NSA's 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. It has been described as the world's largest single employer of mathematicians,[4] and the owner of the single largest group of supercomputers[clarification needed], but it has tried to keep a low profile. For many years, its existence was not even acknowledged by the U.S. government, earning it the nickname, "No Such Agency" (NSA).
Because of its listening task, NSA/CSS has been heavily involved in cryptanalytic research, continuing the work of predecessor agencies which had broken many World War II codes and ciphers (see, for instance, Purple, Venona project, and JN-25).
In 2004, NSA Central Security Service and the National Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agreed to expand NSA Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education Program.[5]
As part of the National Security Presidential Directive 54/Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23 (NSPD 54), signed on January 8, 2008 by President Bush, the NSA became the lead agency to monitor and protect all of the federal government's computer networks from cyber-terrorism.[1]
Facilities
NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland
Headquarters for the National Security Agency are at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, about 15 miles (16 km) southwest of Baltimore. The NSA has its own exit off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway labeled "NSA Employees Only." The scale of the operations at the NSA is hard to determine from unclassified data; some 18,000 parking spaces are visible in photos of the site. In 2006, the Baltimore Sun reported that the NSA was at risk of electrical overload because of insufficient internal electrical infrastructure at Fort Meade to support the amount of equipment being installed. This problem was apparently recognized in the 1990s but not made a priority, and "now the agency's ability to keep its operations going is threatened."[6] Its secure government communications work has involved the NSA in numerous technology areas, including the design of specialized communications hardware and software, production of dedicated semiconductors (at the Ft. Meade chip fabrication plant), and advanced cryptography research. The agency contracts with the private sector in the fields of research and equipment.
In addition to its Ft. Meade headquarters, the NSA has facilities at the Texas Cryptology Center in San Antonio, Texas; at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and elsewhere.
National Computer Security Center
The National Computer Security Center, once part of the National Security Agency, was established in 1981 and was responsible for testing and evaluating computer equipment for use in high security and/or confidential applications. NCSC was also responsible for publishing the Orange Book and Red Book detailing trusted computing and network platform specifications. The two works are more formally known as the Trusted Computing System Evaluation Criteria and Trusted Network Interpretation, part of the Rainbow Series, however, they have largely been replaced by the Common Criteria.
History
The National Security Agency can be traced to the May 20, 1949, creation of the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA). This organization was originally established within the U.S. Department of Defense under the command of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The AFSA was to direct the communications and electronic intelligence activities of the U.S. military intelligence units: the Army Security Agency, the Naval Security Group, and the Air Force Security Service. But 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 S. Lay, Executive Secretary of the National Security Council.[7] 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 NSA was extended beyond the armed forces.
The creation of NSA was authorized in a letter written by President Harry S. Truman in June 1952. The agency was formally established through a revision of National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) 9 on October 24, 1952,[7] 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.
Insignia
The NSA's insignia.
The heraldic insignia of NSA consists of a bald eagle facing its right, grasping a key in its talons, representing NSA's clutch on security as well as the mission to protect and gain access to secrets. The eagle is set on a background of blue and its breast features a blue shield supported by thirteen bands of red and white. The surrounding white circular border features "National Security Agency" around the top and "United States of America" underneath, with two five-pointed silver stars between the two phrases. The current NSA insignia has been in use since 1965, when then-Director, LTG Marshall S. Carter (USA) ordered the creation of a device to represent the Agency.[8]
Effect on non-governmental cryptography
NSA has been involved in debates about public policy, both indirectly as a behind-the-scenes adviser to other departments, and directly during and after Vice Admiral Bobby Ray Inman's directorship. NSA was a major player in the debates of the 1990s regarding the export of cryptography. Restrictions on export were reduced but not eliminated in 1996.
Data Encryption Standard (DES)
Main article: Data Encryption Standard
NSA was embroiled in some minor controversy concerning its involvement in the creation of the Data Encryption Standard (DES), a standard and public block cipher algorithm used by the U.S. government and banking community. During the development of DES by IBM in the 1970s, NSA recommended changes to some details of the design. There was suspicion that these changes had weakened the algorithm sufficiently to enable the agency to eavesdrop if required, including speculation that a critical component—the so-called S-boxes—had been altered to insert a "backdoor" and that the reduction in key length might have made it feasible for NSA to discover DES keys using massive computing power. It has since been observed that the S-boxes in DES are particularly resilient against differential cryptanalysis, a technique which was not publicly discovered until the late 1980s, but which was known to the IBM DES team. The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reviewed NSA's involvement, and concluded that while the agency had provided some assistance, it had not tampered with the design.[9][10]
Clipper chip
Main article: Clipper chip
Because of concerns that widespread use of strong cryptography would hamper government use of wiretaps, NSA proposed the concept of key escrow in 1993 and introduced the Clipper chip 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 hardware-based encryption cards, created for the Clipper project, are still used within government, and NSA ultimately published the design of the SKIPJACK cipher (but not the key exchange protocol) used on the cards.
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
Main article: Advanced Encryption Standard
Possibly because of previous controversy, the involvement of NSA in the selection of a successor to DES, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), was initially limited to hardware performance testing (see AES competition). 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 were designed by NSA.
Dual EC DRBG random number generator
Main article: Dual EC DRBG
NSA promoted the inclusion of a random number generator called Dual EC DRBG in the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology'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.[11]
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/CSS has, at times, attempted to restrict the publication of academic research into cryptography; for example, the Khufu and Khafre block ciphers were voluntarily withheld in response to an NSA request to do so.
Patents
NSA has the ability to file for a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under gag order. 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.[12]
One of NSA's published patents describes a method of geographically locating an individual computer site in an Internet-like network, based on the latency of multiple network connections.[13]
NSA programs
ECHELON
Main article: 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), otherwise known as the UKUSA group[14], is widely reported to be in command of the operation of the so-called 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, according to a December 16, 2005 article in the New York Times.[15]
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. 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, when the subject is located abroad, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court when within U.S. Borders.[16] The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that intelligence agencies cannot conduct surveillance against American citizens. There are a few extreme circumstances where collecting on a U.S. entity 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 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.[citation needed] 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 and industrial espionage.[17][18] Examples include the gear-less wind turbine technology designed by the German firm Enercon[19][20] and the speech technology developed by the Belgian firm Lernout & Hauspie. An article in the Baltimore Sun reported in 1995 that aerospace company Airbus lost a $6 billion contract with Saudi Arabia in 1994 after NSA reported that Airbus officials had been bribing Saudi officials to secure the contract.[21][22] 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, Andy McNab 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, 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.[23] The specific requirements for domestic surveillance operations are contained in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA), which does not extend protection to non-U.S. citizens located outside of U.S. territory.[23]
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
Further information: Church Committee
In the years after President Richard Nixon resigned, there were several investigations of suspected misuse of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and NSA facilities. Senator Frank Church headed a Senate investigating committee (the Church Committee) which uncovered previously unknown activity, such as a CIA plot (ordered by President John F. Kennedy) to assassinate Fidel Castro. The investigation also uncovered NSA's wiretaps on targeted American citizens. After the Church Committee hearings, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 became law, limiting circumstances under which domestic surveillance was allowed.
ThinThread wiretapping and data mining
Main article: ThinThread
A wiretapping program named ThinThread was tested in the late 1990s, but never put into operation. ThinThread contained both advanced data mining capabilities and built-in privacy protections. These privacy protections were abandoned in the post-9/11 effort by President George W. Bush 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.[24]
Warrantless wiretaps under George W. Bush
Main article: NSA warrantless surveillance controversy
On December 16, 2005, the New York Times reported 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 tapping the telephones of select individuals in the U.S. calling persons outside the country, without obtaining warrants from the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a secret court created for that purpose under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).[25]
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 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.[1]
Proponents of the surveillance program claim that the President has executive authority 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, although the Supreme Court's ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld deprecates this view. In the August 2006 case ACLU v. NSA, U.S. District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor 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.[26]
AT&T Internet monitoring
Further information: Hepting v. AT&T, Mark Klein, NSA warrantless surveillance controversy
In May 2006, Mark Klein, a former AT&T employee, alleged that his company had cooperated with NSA in installing hardware to monitor network communications including traffic between American citizens.[27]
Wiretapping under Barack Obama
The New York Times reported in 2009 that the NSA is intercepting communications of American citizens including a Congressman, although the Justice Department believed that the NSA had corrected its errors.[28] United States Attorney General Eric Holder resumed the wiretapping according to his understanding of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008 which Congress passed in July 2008 but without explaining what had occurred.[29]
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.[30]
In fiction
Main article: NSA 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, and computer games.
Staff
Main article: Director of the National Security Agency
Directors
Notable cryptanalysts
NSA encryption systems
Main article: NSA encryption systems
STU-III secure telephones on display at the National Cryptologic Museum
NSA is responsible for the encryption-related components in these systems:
Some past NSA SIGINT activities
See also
NSA computers
References
Further reading
Organization
The National Security Agency is divided into two major missions: the Signals Intelligence Directorate (SID), which produces foreign signals intelligence information, and the Information Assurance Directorate (IAD), which protects U.S. information systems.[3]
Role
NSA's 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. It has been described as the world's largest single employer of mathematicians,[4] and the owner of the single largest group of supercomputers[clarification needed], but it has tried to keep a low profile. For many years, its existence was not even acknowledged by the U.S. government, earning it the nickname, "No Such Agency" (NSA).
Because of its listening task, NSA/CSS has been heavily involved in cryptanalytic research, continuing the work of predecessor agencies which had broken many World War II codes and ciphers (see, for instance, Purple, Venona project, and JN-25).
In 2004, NSA Central Security Service and the National Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agreed to expand NSA Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education Program.[5]
As part of the National Security Presidential Directive 54/Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23 (NSPD 54), signed on January 8, 2008 by President Bush, the NSA became the lead agency to monitor and protect all of the federal government's computer networks from cyber-terrorism.[1]
Facilities
NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland
Headquarters for the National Security Agency are at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, about 15 miles (16 km) southwest of Baltimore. The NSA has its own exit off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway labeled "NSA Employees Only." The scale of the operations at the NSA is hard to determine from unclassified data; some 18,000 parking spaces are visible in photos of the site. In 2006, the Baltimore Sun reported that the NSA was at risk of electrical overload because of insufficient internal electrical infrastructure at Fort Meade to support the amount of equipment being installed. This problem was apparently recognized in the 1990s but not made a priority, and "now the agency's ability to keep its operations going is threatened."[6] Its secure government communications work has involved the NSA in numerous technology areas, including the design of specialized communications hardware and software, production of dedicated semiconductors (at the Ft. Meade chip fabrication plant), and advanced cryptography research. The agency contracts with the private sector in the fields of research and equipment.
In addition to its Ft. Meade headquarters, the NSA has facilities at the Texas Cryptology Center in San Antonio, Texas; at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and elsewhere.
National Computer Security Center
The National Computer Security Center, once part of the National Security Agency, was established in 1981 and was responsible for testing and evaluating computer equipment for use in high security and/or confidential applications. NCSC was also responsible for publishing the Orange Book and Red Book detailing trusted computing and network platform specifications. The two works are more formally known as the Trusted Computing System Evaluation Criteria and Trusted Network Interpretation, part of the Rainbow Series, however, they have largely been replaced by the Common Criteria.
History
The National Security Agency can be traced to the May 20, 1949, creation of the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA). This organization was originally established within the U.S. Department of Defense under the command of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The AFSA was to direct the communications and electronic intelligence activities of the U.S. military intelligence units: the Army Security Agency, the Naval Security Group, and the Air Force Security Service. But 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 S. Lay, Executive Secretary of the National Security Council.[7] 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 NSA was extended beyond the armed forces.
The creation of NSA was authorized in a letter written by President Harry S. Truman in June 1952. The agency was formally established through a revision of National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) 9 on October 24, 1952,[7] 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.
Insignia
The NSA's insignia.
The heraldic insignia of NSA consists of a bald eagle facing its right, grasping a key in its talons, representing NSA's clutch on security as well as the mission to protect and gain access to secrets. The eagle is set on a background of blue and its breast features a blue shield supported by thirteen bands of red and white. The surrounding white circular border features "National Security Agency" around the top and "United States of America" underneath, with two five-pointed silver stars between the two phrases. The current NSA insignia has been in use since 1965, when then-Director, LTG Marshall S. Carter (USA) ordered the creation of a device to represent the Agency.[8]
Effect on non-governmental cryptography
NSA has been involved in debates about public policy, both indirectly as a behind-the-scenes adviser to other departments, and directly during and after Vice Admiral Bobby Ray Inman's directorship. NSA was a major player in the debates of the 1990s regarding the export of cryptography. Restrictions on export were reduced but not eliminated in 1996.
Data Encryption Standard (DES)
Main article: Data Encryption Standard
NSA was embroiled in some minor controversy concerning its involvement in the creation of the Data Encryption Standard (DES), a standard and public block cipher algorithm used by the U.S. government and banking community. During the development of DES by IBM in the 1970s, NSA recommended changes to some details of the design. There was suspicion that these changes had weakened the algorithm sufficiently to enable the agency to eavesdrop if required, including speculation that a critical component—the so-called S-boxes—had been altered to insert a "backdoor" and that the reduction in key length might have made it feasible for NSA to discover DES keys using massive computing power. It has since been observed that the S-boxes in DES are particularly resilient against differential cryptanalysis, a technique which was not publicly discovered until the late 1980s, but which was known to the IBM DES team. The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reviewed NSA's involvement, and concluded that while the agency had provided some assistance, it had not tampered with the design.[9][10]
Clipper chip
Main article: Clipper chip
Because of concerns that widespread use of strong cryptography would hamper government use of wiretaps, NSA proposed the concept of key escrow in 1993 and introduced the Clipper chip 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 hardware-based encryption cards, created for the Clipper project, are still used within government, and NSA ultimately published the design of the SKIPJACK cipher (but not the key exchange protocol) used on the cards.
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
Main article: Advanced Encryption Standard
Possibly because of previous controversy, the involvement of NSA in the selection of a successor to DES, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), was initially limited to hardware performance testing (see AES competition). 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 were designed by NSA.
Dual EC DRBG random number generator
Main article: Dual EC DRBG
NSA promoted the inclusion of a random number generator called Dual EC DRBG in the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology'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.[11]
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/CSS has, at times, attempted to restrict the publication of academic research into cryptography; for example, the Khufu and Khafre block ciphers were voluntarily withheld in response to an NSA request to do so.
Patents
NSA has the ability to file for a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under gag order. 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.[12]
One of NSA's published patents describes a method of geographically locating an individual computer site in an Internet-like network, based on the latency of multiple network connections.[13]
NSA programs
ECHELON
Main article: 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), otherwise known as the UKUSA group[14], is widely reported to be in command of the operation of the so-called 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, according to a December 16, 2005 article in the New York Times.[15]
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. 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, when the subject is located abroad, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court when within U.S. Borders.[16] The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that intelligence agencies cannot conduct surveillance against American citizens. There are a few extreme circumstances where collecting on a U.S. entity 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 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.[citation needed] 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 and industrial espionage.[17][18] Examples include the gear-less wind turbine technology designed by the German firm Enercon[19][20] and the speech technology developed by the Belgian firm Lernout & Hauspie. An article in the Baltimore Sun reported in 1995 that aerospace company Airbus lost a $6 billion contract with Saudi Arabia in 1994 after NSA reported that Airbus officials had been bribing Saudi officials to secure the contract.[21][22] 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, Andy McNab 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, 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.[23] The specific requirements for domestic surveillance operations are contained in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA), which does not extend protection to non-U.S. citizens located outside of U.S. territory.[23]
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
Further information: Church Committee
In the years after President Richard Nixon resigned, there were several investigations of suspected misuse of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and NSA facilities. Senator Frank Church headed a Senate investigating committee (the Church Committee) which uncovered previously unknown activity, such as a CIA plot (ordered by President John F. Kennedy) to assassinate Fidel Castro. The investigation also uncovered NSA's wiretaps on targeted American citizens. After the Church Committee hearings, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 became law, limiting circumstances under which domestic surveillance was allowed.
ThinThread wiretapping and data mining
Main article: ThinThread
A wiretapping program named ThinThread was tested in the late 1990s, but never put into operation. ThinThread contained both advanced data mining capabilities and built-in privacy protections. These privacy protections were abandoned in the post-9/11 effort by President George W. Bush 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.[24]
Warrantless wiretaps under George W. Bush
Main article: NSA warrantless surveillance controversy
On December 16, 2005, the New York Times reported 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 tapping the telephones of select individuals in the U.S. calling persons outside the country, without obtaining warrants from the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a secret court created for that purpose under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).[25]
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 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.[1]
Proponents of the surveillance program claim that the President has executive authority 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, although the Supreme Court's ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld deprecates this view. In the August 2006 case ACLU v. NSA, U.S. District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor 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.[26]
AT&T Internet monitoring
Further information: Hepting v. AT&T, Mark Klein, NSA warrantless surveillance controversy
In May 2006, Mark Klein, a former AT&T employee, alleged that his company had cooperated with NSA in installing hardware to monitor network communications including traffic between American citizens.[27]
Wiretapping under Barack Obama
The New York Times reported in 2009 that the NSA is intercepting communications of American citizens including a Congressman, although the Justice Department believed that the NSA had corrected its errors.[28] United States Attorney General Eric Holder resumed the wiretapping according to his understanding of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008 which Congress passed in July 2008 but without explaining what had occurred.[29]
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.[30]
In fiction
Main article: NSA 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, and computer games.
Staff
Main article: Director of the National Security Agency
Directors
- November 1952 – November 1956 Lt. Gen. Ralph J. Canine, USA
- November 1956 – November 1960 Lt. Gen. John A. Samford, USAF
- November 1960 – January 1962 V. Adm. Laurence H. Frost, USN
- January 1962 – June 1965 Lt. Gen. Gordon A. Blake, USAF
- June 1965 – August 1969 Lt. Gen. Marshall S. Carter, USA
- August 1969 – August 1972 V. Adm. Noel A. M. Gaylor, USN
- August 1972 – August 1973 Lt. Gen. Samuel C. Phillips, USAF
- August 1973 – July 1977 Lt. Gen. Lew Allen, Jr., USAF
- July 1977 – April 1981 V. Adm. Bobby Ray Inman, USN
- April 1981 – May 1985 Lt. Gen. Lincoln D. Faurer, USAF
- May 1985 – August 1988 Lt. Gen. William E. Odom, USA
- August 1988 – May 1992 V. Adm. William O. Studeman, USN
- May 1992 – February 1996 V. Adm. John M. McConnell, USN
- February 1996 – March 1999 Lt. Gen. Kenneth A. Minihan, USAF
- March 1999 – April 2005 Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, USAF
- April 2005 – present Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, USA
- December 1952 – November 1953 R. Adm. Joseph Wenger, USN
- November 1953 – June 1956 Brig. Gen. John Ackerman, USAF
- June 1956 – August 1956 Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, USAF
- August 1956 – September 1957 Mr. Joseph H. Ream
- October 1957 – July 1958 Dr. H. T. Engstrom
- August 1958 – April 1974 Dr. Louis W. Tordella, USN
- April 1974 – May 1978 Mr. Benson K. Buffham
- May 1978 – April 1980 Mr. Robert E. Drake
- April 1980 – July 1982 Ms. Ann Z. Caracristi
- July 1982 – June 1985 Mr. Robert E. Rich
- June 1985 – March 1988 Mr. Charles R. Lord
- March 1988 – July 1990 Mr. Gerald R. Young
- July 1990 – February 1994 Mr. Robert L. Prestel
- February 1994 – October 1997 Mr. William P. Crowell
- October 1997 – June 2000 Ms. Barbara A. McNamara
- June 2000 – August 2006 Mr. William B. Black, Jr.
- August 2006 – present Mr. John C. (Chris) Inglis, Brig. Gen. (retired), USAF & USANG& mark
Notable cryptanalysts
NSA encryption systems
Main article: NSA encryption systems
STU-III secure telephones on display at the National Cryptologic Museum
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
- KG-84 Dedicated Data Encryption/Decryption
- SINCGARS tactical radio with cryptographically controlled frequency hopping
- STE secure terminal equipment
- STU-III secure telephone unit, currently being phased out by the STE
- TACLANE product line by General Dynamics
Some past NSA SIGINT activities
- VENONA project
- Gulf of Tonkin Incident
- USS Liberty incident
- USS Pueblo (AGER-2)
- Operation Ivy Bells
- Korean Air Lines Flight 007 [2]
See also
- James Bamford
- Biometric Consortium
- Bureau of Intelligence and Research
- Central Intelligence Agency
- Central Security Service
- Counterintelligence Field Activity
- Defence Signals Directorate
- Defense Intelligence Agency
- United States Department of Homeland Security
- Diplomatic Security Service
- Espionage
- Federal Bureau of Investigation
- Government Communications Headquarters
- Narus
- National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
- National Reconnaissance Office
- National Security Whistleblowers Coalition
- Ronald Pelton
- John Anthony Walker
- Project SHAMROCK
- Security-Enhanced Linux
- Signals intelligence
- Skipjack (cipher)
- TEMPEST
- Type 1 product
NSA computers
References
- ^ a b Ellen Nakashima (2008-01-26). "Bush Order Expands Network Monitoring: Intelligence Agencies to Track Intrusions". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...61_pf.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-09.
- ^ Gorman, Siobhan (March 10, 2008). "NSA's Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data". The Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones). http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120511973377523845.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
- ^ "The National Security Agency Frequently Asked Questions". National Security Agency. http://www.nsa.gov/about/about00018.cfm#1. Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
- ^ Introduction to NSA/CSS, NSA. Retrieved 15 May 2006.
- ^ NSA Public and Media Affairs. National Security Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Form New Partnership to Increase National Focus on Cyber Security Education. Press release. http://www.nsa.gov/releases/relea00077.cfm. Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
- ^ Gorman, Siobhan. "NSA risking electrical overload". http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationw...-headlines. Retrieved on 2006-08-06.
- ^ a b In Body of Secrets (Anchor Books 2002), footnote on p. 30, James Bamford mentions to a CIA, Top Secret /Codeword memorandum "Proposed Survey of Intelligence Activities" (December 10, 1951). Retrieved 23 October 2008.
- ^ "The National Security Agency Insignia". National Security Agency. http://www.nsa.gov/history/histo00018.cfm. Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
- ^ Davies, D.W.; W.L. Price (1989). Security for computer networks, 2nd ed.. John Wiley & Sons.
- ^ Robert Sugarman (editor) (July 1979). "On foiling computer crime". IEEE Spectrum (IEEE).
- ^ Bruce Schneier (2007-11-15). "Did NSA Put a Secret Backdoor in New Encryption Standard?". Wired News. http://www.wired.com/politics/security/c...tters_1115. Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
- ^ Schneier, Bruce (1996). Applied Cryptography, Second Edition. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 609–610. ISBN 0-471-11709-9.
- ^ "United States Patent 6,947,978 - Method for geolocating logical network addresses.". United States Patent and Trademark Office. 2005-09-20. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parse...%2F6947978. Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
- ^ Richelson, Jeffrey T.; Ball, Desmond (1985). The Ties That Bind: Intelligence Cooperation Between the UKUSA Countries. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0-04-327092-1
- ^ James Risen and Eric Lichtblau (December 16, 2005). "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/politi...nted=print. Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
- ^ National Security Agency. United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18. National Security Agency July 27, 1993. Last access date March 23, 2007
- ^ "European Parliament Report on ECHELON" (PDF). July 2001. http://www.fas.org/irp/program/process/r...lon_en.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
- ^ "Nicky Hager Appearance before the European Parliament ECHELON Committee". April 2001. http://cryptome.org/echelon-nh.htm. Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
- ^ Die Zeit: 40/1999 "Verrat unter Freunden" ("Treachery among friends", German), available at archiv.zeit.de
- ^ Report A5-0264/2001 of the European Parliament (English), available at European Parliament website
- ^ "BBC News". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/820758.stm. Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
- ^ "Interception capabilities 2000". http://www.cyber-rights.org/interception...htm#Report. Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
- ^ a b David Alan Jordan. Decrypting the Fourth Amendment: Warrantless NSA Surveillance and the Enhanced Expectation of Privacy Provided by Encrypted Voice over Internet Protocol. Boston College Law Review. May, 2006. Last access date January 23, 2007
- ^ Gorman, Siobhan (2006-05-17). "NSA killed system that sifted phone data legally". Baltimore Sun (Tribune Company (Chicago, IL)). http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationw...&cset=true. Retrieved on 2008-03-07. "The privacy protections offered by ThinThread were also abandoned in the post-September 11 push by the president for a faster response to terrorism."
- ^ James Risen & Eric Lichtblau (December 16, 2005), Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts, New York Times
- ^ 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Decision
- ^ "For Your Eyes Only?". NOW. February 16 2007. http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/307/index.html. on PBS
- ^ Lichtblau, Eric and Risen, James (April 15, 2009). "N.S.A.’s Intercepts Exceed Limits Set by Congress". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/us/16nsa.html. Retrieved on 2009-04-15.
- ^ Ackerman, Spencer (April 16, 2009). "NSA Revelations Spark Push to Restore FISA". The Washington Independent (Center for Independent Media). http://washingtonindependent.com/39153/n...store-fisa. Retrieved on 2009-04-19.
- ^ Gorman, Siobahn (2008-03-10). "NSA's Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data". The Wall Street Journal Online. http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB12...23845.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-17.
Further reading
- Bamford, James, Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency, Doubleday, 2001, ISBN 0-385-49907-8.
- Bamford, James, The Puzzle Palace, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-006748-5.
- Hanyok, Robert J. (2002). Spartans in Darkness: American SIGINT and the Indochina War, 1945-1975. National Security Agency. http://www.fas.org/irp/nsa/spartans/index.html. Retrieved on 2008-11-16.
- Johnson, Thomas R. (2008). American Cryptology during the Cold War. National Security Agency: Center for Cryptological History. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB260/. Retrieved on 2008-11-16.
- Levy, Steven, Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government Saving Privacy in the Digital Age – 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, The Codebreakers, 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, New York Times, December 25, 2005; The Agency That Could Be Big Brother. [URL]http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/25/weekinreview/25bamford.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=The%20Agenc...
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
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"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.