The National Security Agency does signal intelligence, cybersecurity and combat support. They have several departments and operations. There have been many different programs to gather intel. NSA do sum domestic collection as well and it has watch centers. Encryption is a big deal to them. Employees have been getting polygraphs since 2013. The NSA operate in several locations and they have their own police force. It has a long history and other spy agencies work with them as well. Edward Snowden have been a thorn in there side.
Definition
They are a spy agency that focuses on signal intelligence (sigint). They can get information from cell phones, computers and other electronics. NSA have founded ways to keep computers safe from hacking. When the U.S. military is @ war, they feed them info about the enemy. NSA is part of the Department of Defense.
Departments
Operations: These are the spies that get sigint.
Technology: Geeks that make gadgets 4 the operators to collect intel.
IT: They keep communications safe from interception.
Policy: Guide the agency in the right direction and help staff.
Support: Administrative and logistical support.
Operations
They collect intel from overseas, @ home and they hack computers. Computer Network Operations (CNO) is the division ova hacking. There are many computer geeks that work in this division. China and Mexico have been spied on by the the CNO. Special Source Operations division spy on the U.S. citizens. Global Access Operations division spy on the rest of the world.
Programs
XKeyscore: 'A secret computer system 4 searching and analyzing data in real time.' This was shared with BND, Sweden, Denmark, and Japan.
PRISM: 'Collection of internet communications from various internet companies.' They focused on Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia.
Dishfire: It collects text messages from around the world. The GCHQ is a part of this.
Rampart-A: It listens to international fiber-optic cables. Many other countries are apart of this.
MYSTIC: They collect metadata & content from phone calls.
Boundless Informant: A visualization tool that looks @ data collected from around the world.
Bullrun: It cracks encryption on internet. GCHQ is apart of this too.
ECHELON: Worldwide surveillance by the NSA and its closest allies.
Domestic Spying
AT&T helped the NSA spy on citizens. It was reported in May of 2008. That same year, they were data mining transactional info as well. Version had to give all its daily call information to the NSA 4 three months. This happened in 2013, because of a court order. In 2015 it was discovered information from illegal wiretaps by the NSA was given to Internal Revenue Service and Drug Enforcement Agency 2 arrest people.
Watch Centers
There are 2 of these places. The first one is called National Security Operations Center. They do a lot of spying. The 2nd one is called NSA/CSS Threat Operations Center. They work with the Department of Homeland Security to protect the internet in the U.S.
Encryption
IBM made the Data Encryption Standard(DES); it was changed by the NSA. DES became the standard 4 encrypting unclassified sensitive government data. Sum people believe the NSA put a backdoor in it. In 2001 it was replaced by the Advanced Encryption Standard.
The NSA has made many encryption systems. There have been 5 generations of encryption. The first generation was electromechanical. They used something like a type writer. The 2nd generation used vacuum tubes. The 3rd generation used circuits. The 4th generation used electronic key distribution. The last generation is based on a network of computers.
Polygraphs
When your a spy, who can you trust? This test is given to new employees to make sure they aren't an enemy spy. And 2 find out if any personal info will make them give up secrets. Every 5 years employees must take another polygraph. If they don't, they'll be fired. The director can fire any employee, any time and for any reason.
Locations
They have sites in the states and in other countries. I explain those sites in great detail!!! They need a bunch of sites so they can keep tabs on everybody. Spying ain't eazy, but somebody got to do it.
The headquarter is in Maryland. They're also located in Georgia, Texas, Colorado, and Hawaii. In Georgia they do military support 4 several clients. In Texas they do signet, hacking and cybersecurity. In Colorado they do military support as well. In Hawaii they do the same as Texas, but they also protect U.S. communications. They have a base in Cyprus as well.
Pine Gap: This base is in Australia. The NSA is helping the Israeli Defense Forces kill innocent Palestinians. That's awful!!!!!!! They shouldn't help mass murderers and serial killers. Israel has access to ECHELON. Sum spy satellites are controlled from this base. They monitor most of the eastern hemisphere. Many people in U.S. and Australian intelligence and military work there. They are able to geolocate targets 4 airstrikes.
Misawa: This base is located in Japan. It has been there @ least since 2009. The U.S. military has been able to kill terrorists because of targeting information from this base. Quantum Inserts are done on that base as well.
Bangkok: The site is in the U.S. embassy in Thailand and the CIA is there too. They eavesdrop on foreign embassies and government communications. They share sum of this info with Thai intelligence. There is a site in another city that spy on foreign satellite communication.
Police Force
The NSA Police Force protects the people and property of the organization. They have bomb smelling dogs. They make sure the buildings are safe and the dogs check the mail. If someone commits a crime in a NSA building these police will arrest them. @ one time they were unable to arrest criminals.
Spy Buddies
They close to the GCHQ, CSEC, ASD, and GCSB. They all make up the 5 Eyes. CSEC is the Canadian version of the NSA. ASD is the Australian version and GCSB is the New Zealand version. GCHQ is British and it works closest with them. The NSA shares information on U.S. citizens with IDF Unit 8200.
History
The Cipher Bureau was created in 1917. The next year it absorbed the Navy's "cryptanalysis functions." The Black Chamber was created in 1919. They spied on other countries communications. It only lasted 4 ten years. In 1949 the Armed Forces Security Agency was created. In 1951 is was renamed National Security Agency. Project MINARET was created in 1962. The NSA spied on USA citizens and foreigners. It focused on people going to Cuba and drug traffickers. 2 years later it focused on Civil Rights activists and Hippies. GCHQ helped out in that project. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was created in 1978, so the NSA couldn't spy on U.S. citizens so eazy. Finally the NSA created projects to spy on the world.
Edward Snowden
He was a intelligence contractor that became a whistleblower. He revealed the NSA spying programs. The NSA was collecting huge amounts of info on U.S. citizens without their knowledge. A army general said most of Edward documents didn't deal with domestic spying, but "military capabilities, operations, tactics, techniques, and procedures." If the general's right, Snowden was probably working 4 a foreign power.
Conclusion
NSA is a spy agency that focuses on getting information from electronics. It has 5 departments and many programs. It spies on U.S. citizens and has watch centers. They big on encryption and employees must take polygraphs. They have bases worldwide and their own police force. They work with other countries' spy agencies and it has been around for 71 years.
References
duckduckgo.com
wikipedia.org
https://www.nsa.gov/
https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/National-Security-Agency
https://declassifiedaus.org/2023/11/03/targeting-palestine/
https://theintercept.com/2017/08/19/nsa-spy-hub-cia-pine-gap-australia/
https://theintercept.com/2017/04/24/japans-secret-deals-with-the-nsa-that-expand-global-surveillance/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/nsa-transferred-raw-intelligence-to-israel-document-shows/
