What is the NSA?
The National Security Agency is the Nation's cryptologic organization. It coordinates, directs, and performs highly specialized activities to protect U.S. information systems and produce foreign intelligence information. A high technology organization, NSA is on the frontiers of communications and data processing. It is also one of the most important centers of foreign language analysis and research within the Government.
Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) is a unique discipline with a long and storied
past. SIGINT's modern era dates to World War II, when the U.S. broke the
Japanese military code and learned of plans to invade Midway Island. This
intelligence allowed the U.S. to defeat Japan's superior fleet. The use
of SIGINT is believed to have directly contributed to shortening the war
by at least one year. Today, SIGINT continues to play an important role
in maintaining the superpower status of the United States.
As the world becomes more and more technology-oriented, the Information
Systems Security (INFOSEC) mission becomes increasingly challenging. This
mission involves protecting all classified and sensitive information that
is stored or sent through U.S. Government equipment. INFOSEC professionals
go to great lengths to make certain that Government systems remain impenetrable.
This support spans from the highest levels of U.S. Government to the individual
warfighter in the field.
NSA conducts one of the U.S. Government's leading research and development
programs. Some of the Agency's R&D projects have significantly advanced
the state of the art in the scientific and business worlds. NSA's early
interest in cryptanalytic research led to the first large-scale computer
and the first solid-state computer, predecessors to the modern computer.
NSA pioneered efforts in flexible storage capabilities, which led to the
development of the tape cassette. NSA also made ground-breaking developments
in semiconductor technology and remains a world leader in many technological
fields.
Who is the NSA?
NSA employs the country's premier codemakers and codebreakers. It is said to be the largest employer of mathematicians in the United States and perhaps the world. Its mathematicians contribute directly to the two missions of the Agency: designing cipher systems that will protect the integrity of U.S. information systems and searching for weaknesses in adversaries' systems and codes.
Technology and the world change rapidly, and great emphasis is placed
on staying ahead of these changes with employee training programs. The
National Cryptologic School is indicative of the Agency's commitment to
professional development. The school not only provides unique training
for the NSA workforce, but it also serves as a training resource for the
entire Department of Defense. NSA sponsors employees for bachelor and
graduate studies at the Nation's top universities and colleges, and selected
Agency employees attend the various war colleges of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Most NSA/CSS employees, both civilian and military, are headquartered
at Fort Meade, Maryland, centrally located between Baltimore and Washington,
DC. Its workforce represents an unusual combination of specialties: analysts,
engineers, physicists, mathematicians, linguists, computer scientists,
researchers, as well as customer relations specialists, security officers,
data flow experts, managers, administrative and clerical assistants.
