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===[[Brownsea Island Scout camp]]===
<div style="float:right; margin-left:1em; text-align:center; width:144px; ">[[image:nsa_seal.png|NSA Seal]]<br>''The NSA Seal''</div>
We've put a lot of work into improving this lately and feel it is ready for a FAC run. Brownsea Island was the site of the first camping trip by [[Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell|Robert Baden-Powell]] in August 1907. This camping trip ignited the worldwide [[Scouting]] movement.[[User:Rlevse|Rlevse]] 14:56, 8 July 2007 (UTC)
*'''Support''' Especially relevant with the upcoming centenarry. --[[User:evrik|evrik]] <sup>([[User talk:evrik|talk]])</sup> 19:12, 8 July 2007 (UTC)
The '''National Security Agency''' ('''NSA''') is a [[United States]] [[government of the United States|government]] [[intelligence agencies|agency]] responsible for the collection and analysis of forms of communication through radio broadcasting, whether commercial or personal, [[Internet]], and otherwise intercepted forms of communication. Despite being the world's largest single employer of [[Ph.D.]] [[mathematician]]s, the owner of many of the world's [[supercomputer]]s, and an organization with a budget that reportedly matches or exceeds that of the [[CIA]], it has had a remarkably low profile until recent years. For many years its existence was not even admitted by the US government.
The NSA was charged with the interception (and [[cryptanalysis]] if necessary) of foreign communications and the protection of US Government communications. It has, therefore, been heavily involved in [[cryptography]] research, continuing the work of its predecessor agencies. They were responsible for breaking many [[World War II]] [[crypto system]]s, both [[code]]s and [[cipher|cypher]]s (see [[Purple code]], [[Venona]], and [[JN-25]]).
NSA is also responsible for assisting in securing the U.S. Government's, and even private (to some extent) communications infrastructure from the efforts of similar agencies working for foreign powers. Again this continues responsibilities inherited from its predecessors (see [[SIGABA]]). NSA recommended changes to the [[IBM]]'s [[NIST]] submission during the process which produced the [[DES]] encryption algorithm in the first half of the [[1970s]]. Subsequently, it was widely believed that those changes were made so as to make it easier for NSA to break the cypher when desired. However, the public rediscovery of [[differential cryptanalysis]] showed that one of the changes (to the [[S-box]]es) were actually likely to have been suggested to harden the algorithm against this cryptanalytic technique not then publicly known. It remained publicly unknown until [[Eli Biham]] and [[Adi Shamir]] independently discovered it and published some decades later. However, the shortening of the 112-bit [[cryptographic key|key]] used by the [[IBM]] submission to an effective 56 bits has never been explained as anything other than a weakening of the [[cipher|algorithm]], making possible a [[brute force attack|exhaustive search]] for the key. The involvement of the NSA in the successor to DES, the [[Advanced Encryption Standard]] (AES) was limited to hardware performance tests.
The NSA, in combination with corresponding agencies in the [[United Kingdom]] ([[GCHQ]]), [[Canada]] ([[Communications Security Establishment|CSE]]), [[Australia]] (the [[Defence Signals Directorate]]), and [[New Zealand]], is believed to be responsible for, among other things, the operation of the [[Echelon]] system, whose capabilities are suspected to include the ability to monitor a large proportion of the civilian [[telephone|phone]] and data traffic transmitted around the world. The scale of these efforts is hard to determine from unclassified data, but one strong clue is the electricity usage of the NSA headquarters. The NSA's budget for electricity exceeds $21 million per year, making it the second largest electricity consumer in the entire State of [[Maryland]]. Using conservative estimates, the NSA headquarters alone uses enough electricity to power four [[Earth Simulator]]s (as of 20 Sept 2002, the most powerful supercomputer in existence).
Many people oppose the NSA's operations, arguing that NSA infringes on Americans' right to [[privacy]] by spying on the United States' own citizens. Others say that what NSA does is necessary.
Headquarters for the NSA is [[Fort George G. Meade]], Maryland, approximately ten miles northwest of [[Washington, DC]]. The NSA has its own exit off of the [[Baltimore-Washington Parkway]], labelled "NSA Employees Only".
== History ==
The predecessor of the NSA, the '''Armed Forces Security Agency''' ('''AFSA'''), was established within the Department of Defense, under the command of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 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. After an extensive study authorized on [[December 13]], [[1951]], the NSA was created in [[June]] [[1952]].
===Directors===
*[[1952]]-[[1956]] Lt. Gen. [[Ralph J. Canine]], USA
*[[1956]]-[[1960]] Lt. Gen. [[John A. Samford]], USAF
*[[1960]]-[[1962]] Vice Adm. [[Laurence H. Frost]], USN
*[[1962]]-[[1965]] Lt. Gen. [[Gordon A. Blake]], USAF
*[[1965]]-[[1969]] Lt. Gen. [[Marshall S. Carter]], USA
*[[1969]]-[[1972]] Vice Adm. [[Noel A. M. Gaylor]], USN
*[[1972]]-[[1973]] Lt. Gen. [[Samuel C. Phillips]], USAF
*[[1973]]-[[1977]] Lt. Gen. [[Lew Allen, Jr.]], USAF
*[[1977]]-[[1981]] Vice Adm. [[Bobby Ray Inman]], USN
*[[1981]]-[[1985]] Lt. Gen. [[Lincoln D. Faurer]], USAF
*[[1985]]-[[1988]] Lt. Gen. [[William E. Odom]], USA
*[[1988]]-[[1992]] Vice Adm. [[William O. Studeman]], USN
*[[1992]]-[[1996]] Vice Adm. [[John M. McConnell]], USN
*[[1996]]-[[1999]] Lt. Gen. [[Kenneth A. Minihan]], USAF
*[[1999]]-present Lieutenant General [[Michael V. Hayden]], USAF
===Deputy directors===
*[[1958]]-[[1974]] Dr. [[Louis W. Tordella]], USN
USA, USAF, and USN are the American army, air force, and navy respectively.
===Cryptanalysts===
*[[Agnes Meyer Driscoll]]
*[[William F. Friedman]]
*[[Abraham Sinkov]]
== Further reading ==
* [[James Bamford]] - ''[[Body of Secrets]]'', 2001, Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-49907-8
* James Bamford - ''[[The Puzzle Palace]]''
==See also==
*[[Defense Intelligence Agency]]
*[[Espionage]]
*[[Skipjack (cipher)]]
*[[Type 1 product]]
== External links ==
* [http://www.nsa.gov/ NSA official site]
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