October 15, 2010 in National Security Agency
The overall objective of the this task was to architect and implement a capability that will enable automated parsing, normalization, extraction, aggregation, filtering and then detection of attack patterns based on log and log like data in near real time depending on local network settings. We call this the Audit Data Extraction Utility (ADEU).
Tags: Cybersecurity, National Security Agency
August 1, 2010 in Corporate, National Security Agency
(U) The purpose of this manual is to help an operator quickly configure a new Rel 3.2 TACLANE from the moment the TACLANE has been unpacked. This TACLANE Quick Start Manual covers the TACLANE-GigE and TACLANE-Mini Rel 3.2 products.
Tags: For Official Use Only, National Security Agency, TACLANE
August 1, 2010 in Corporate, National Security Agency
(U//FOUO) The purpose of this manual is to explain how to install, operate, and reconfigure the General Dynamics TACLANE 1 -GigE (KG-175A) and TACLANE -Mini (KG-175B) encryptors.
Tags: General Dynamics, National Security Agency, TACLANE
August 1, 2010 in Corporate, National Security Agency
(U//FOUO) The purpose of this manual is to explain how to install, operate, and reconfigure the General Dynamics TACLANE-Micro (KG-175D) encryptor.
Tags: For Official Use Only, General Dynamics, National Security Agency, TACLANE
July 23, 2010 in National Security Agency
The Utah Data Center (UDC) will be a highly secure 65 Mega Watt, Tier III National Security Agency datacenter facility to be located near Camp Williams, Utah. The fast-track program will consist of approximately 1 million ft2 of new facilities, of which 100,000 ft2 will be mission-critical space with raised flooring, and the other 900,000 ft2 will be devoted to technical support and administrative space. Ancillary support facilities include water treatment facilities, electrical substations, a vehicle inspection facility and visitor control center, perimeter site security measures, fuel storage, chiller plants and fire suppression systems. The UDC will incorporate green building strategies and will be required to be a LEED certified facility, with the goal of obtaining a LEED Silver rating.
Tags: National Security Agency, Utah, Utah Data Center
July 2, 2010 in National Security Agency
The Yakima Training Center (YTC) is a United States Army training center (Army maneuver training and live fire area) located in south central Washington state. It is bounded on the west by Interstate 82, on the south by the city of Yakima, on the north by the city of Ellensburg and Interstate 90, and on the east by the Columbia River. It comprises 327,000 acres (132,332 hectares) of land, most of which consists of shrub-steppe, making it one of the largest areas of shrub-steppe habitat remaining in Washington state. According to a 2001 report by the European Parliament, the Yakima Training Center is also an integral part of the ECHELON global communications interception system.
Tags: Domestic Surveillance, ECHELON, Government Surveillance, National Security Agency
June 29, 2010 in National Security Agency
Sugar Grove is an American government communications site located in Pendleton County, West Virginia operated by the National Security Agency. According to a December 25, 2005 article in the New York Times, the site intercepts all international communications entering the Eastern United States. The site was first developed by the Naval Research Laboratory in the early 1960s as the site of a 600 ft (180 m) radio telescope that would gather intelligence on Soviet radar and radio signals reflected from the moon and would gather radioastronomical data on outer space, but the project was halted in 1962 before the telescope construction was completed.[1] The site was then developed as a radio receiving station. The site was activated as “Naval Radio Station Sugar Grove” on May 10, 1969, and two Wullenweber Circulary Disposed Antenna Arrays (CDAAs) were completed on November 8, 1969. Numerous other antennas, dishes, domes, and other facilities were constructed in the following years. Some of the more significant radio telescopes on site are a 60 ft (18 m) dish (oldest telescope on site), a 105 ft (32 m) dish featuring a special waveguide receiver and a 150 ft (46 m) dish (largest telescope on site).
Tags: ECHELON, National Security Agency, SIGINT
June 22, 2010 in European Union
The existence of a global system for intercepting private and commercial communications (the ECHELON interception system)
A. whereas the existence of a global system for intercepting communications, operating by means of cooperation proportionate to their capabilities among the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand under the UKUSA Agreement, is no longer in doubt; whereas it seems likely, in view of the evidence and the consistent pattern of statements from a very wide range of individuals and organisations, including American sources, that its name is in fact ECHELON, although this is a relatively minor detail . . .
Tags: Domestic Surveillance, ECHELON, Government Surveillance, National Security Agency
February 23, 2010 in People
During 1994 and 1995, Mr. Baker served as General Counsel of the WMD Commission investigating intelligence failures prior to the Iraq war. From 1992 to 1994, Mr. Baker was General Counsel of the National Security Agency, where he led NSA and interagency efforts to reform commercial encryption and computer security law and policy. From 1979 to 1981, he helped start the Education Department and served as deputy General Counsel of that Department. He was also a law clerk to Hon. John Paul Stevens, U.S. Supreme Court, as well as to Hon. Frank M. Coffin, U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit, and Hon. Shirley M. Hufstedler, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
Tags: Council on Foreign Relations, Cryptome, Department of Homeland Security, Domestic Surveillance, National Security Agency, Steptoe & Johnson, Stewart Baker
February 5, 2010 in News
Google has turned to the National Security Agency for technical assistance to learn more about the computer network attackers who breached the company’s cybersecurity defenses last year, a person with direct knowledge of the agreement said Thursday. The collaboration between Google, the world’s largest search engine company, and the federal agency in charge of global electronic surveillance raises both civil liberties issues and new questions about how much Google knew about the electronic thefts it experienced when it stated last month that it might end its business operations in China, where it said the attacks originated. The agreement was first reported on Wednesday evening by The Washington Post.
Tags: China, Cybersecurity, Dennis C. Blair, Google, National Security Agency, Spying
January 25, 2010 in News
A federal judge has tossed out a pair of lawsuits accusing government officials during former president George W. Bush’s era of “dragnet spying” on people’s Internet and telephone communications. US District Court Judge Vaughn Walker said in a written decision late Thursday that the named plaintiffs did not show they were victims of spying and therefore lacked standing to champion the class-action suits.
Tags: Domestic Surveillance, National Security Agency, Spying
January 5, 2010 in Corporations
Chertoff Group, LLC is a registered corporation in the State of Delaware formed on February 2, 2009. The firm is lead by Chertoff and Chad Sweet, who served as Chertoff’s Chief of Staff during his tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security. Mr. Sweet worked in the CIA until the early 1990s, when he began a career in investment banking. He initially worked at Morgan Stanley and was later recruited by Goldman Sachs. Mr. Sweet spent six of his twelve years in finance in overseas assignments. He returned to public service after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which he personally witnessed while working at Goldman Sachs in New York.
Tags: Body scanners, Central Intelligence Agency, Chertoff Group, Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, Michael Chertoff, Michael V. Hayden, National Security Agency, Rapiscan
November 20, 2009 in News
The National Security Agency (NSA) worked with Microsoft on the development of Windows 7, an agency official acknowledged yesterday during testimony before Congress. “Working in partnership with Microsoft and elements of the Department of Defense, NSA leveraged our unique expertise and operational knowledge of system threats and vulnerabilities to enhance Microsoft’s operating system security guide without constraining the user to perform their everyday tasks, whether those tasks are being performed in the public or private sector,” Richard Schaeffer, the NSA’s information assurance director, told the Senate’s Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security yesterday as part of a prepared statement.
Tags: Backdoor, Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Windows, National Security Agency
November 11, 2009 in National Security Agency
National Security Agency
Military Construction, Defense-Wide
FY 2010 Budget Estimates
($ in thousands)
Tags: Camp Williams, National Security Agency, Unclassified, Utah
November 2, 2009 in News
The National Security Agency, whose job it is to protect national security systems, will soon break ground on a data center in Utah that’s budgeted to cost $1.5 billion. The NSA is building the facility to provide intelligence and warnings related to cybersecurity threats, cybersecurity support to defense and civilian agency networks, and technical assistance to the Department of Homeland Security, according to a transcript of remarks by Glenn Gaffney, deputy director of national intelligence for collection.
Tags: Camp Williams, Cybersecurity, National Security Agency, Utah
September 2, 2009 in National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Security Agency
Key Management Lifecycle Model arising from our 50+ Years of Experience
– Identification of crypto key needs and recipients
– Generation
– Distribution & Accounting/Tracking
– Storage
Tags: Cryptography, Enigma, For Official Use Only, Key Management, National Security Agency
July 22, 2009 in News
The National Security Agency is taking a cloud computing approach in developing a new collaborative intelligence gathering system that will link disparate intelligence databases. The system, currently in testing, will be geographically distributed in data centers around the country, and it will hold “essentially every kind of data there is,” said Randy Garrett, director of technology for NSA’s integrated intelligence program, at a cloud computing symposium last week at the National Defense University’s Information Resources Management College.
Tags: Cloud Computing, Intelligence Community, Intelligence Community Directive 501, Intelligence Community Integration, National Security Agency
July 11, 2009 in News
Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden angrily struck back Saturday at assertions the Bush administration’s post-9/11 surveillance program was more far-reaching than imagined and was largely concealed from congressional overseers. In an interview with The Associated Press, Hayden maintained that top members of Congress were kept well-informed all along the way, notwithstanding protests from some that they were kept in the dark.
Tags: Department of Defense Inspector General, Domestic Surveillance, Government Surveillance, Illegal Wiretapping, Michael V. Hayden, National Security Agency, President's Surveillance Program, Warrantless wiretapping
July 11, 2009 in Office of Inspector General of the Depratment of Defense
Title III of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act of 2008 required the Inspectors General (IGs) of the elements of the Intelligence Community that participated in the President’s Surveillance Program (PSP) to conduct a comprehensive review of the program. The IGs of the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence participated in the review required under the Act. The Act required the IGs to submit a comprehensive report on the review to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Tags: Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Department of Defense Inspector General, Department of Justice, Domestic Surveillance, FISA, Government Surveillance, Illegal Wiretapping, John Yoo, Michael V. Hayden, National Security Agency, Office of Legal Counsel, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, President's Surveillance Program, Warrantless wiretapping
June 28, 2009 in National Security Agency
The Headquarters of the National Security Agency is located on Route 32 just south of the Baltimore/Washington Parkway, on Fort Meade. No formal means of visiting the NSA headquarters exists, but a look at the historic side of code breaking is provided at the neighboring National Cryptologic Museum located north of the headquarters on Route 32.
Tags: ELINT, Information Operations, National Security Agency, SIGINT, Warrantless wiretapping
June 27, 2009 in Military
The U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) is a proposed Major Command of the United States armed forces set to be operational by October of 2009 and at full operational capacity later the following year. The command will be located at Fort Meade, Maryland in the same installation as the National Security Agency. The proposed director of U.S. Cyber Command is Lieutenant General Keith B. Alexander, the current director of the National Security Agency. Mr. Alexander is also the former Director of Intelligence for CENTCOM and an attendee of the 2009 Bilderberg meeting in Athens, Greece.
Tags: Cybercom, Department of Homeland Security, Fort Meade, Information Operations, Keith B. Alexander, National Security Agency, StratCom, U.S. Cyber Command, U.S. Strategic Command
June 26, 2009 in Government
There is a very small amount of information that is publicly available regarding the Maryland Procurement Office. All non-military domains and subdomains associated with the National Security Agency are registered to the Maryland Procurement Office with the notable exception of www.nsa.gov, which is registered to AT&T Wordnet Services.
Tags: Fort Meade, Maryland Procurement Office, Military Acquisitions, Military Purchasing, National Security Agency
June 25, 2009 in People
Keith B. Alexander was born in Syracuse, New York in 1952. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at Westpoint and went on to earn a Master’s degree in both Systems Technology and Physics from the Naval Postgraduate School. Mr. Alexander also holds two other Master’s degrees, one in Business Administration from Boston University’s Graduate School of Management and the other in National Security Strategy from the National Defense University. His military education has included the Armor Officer Basic Course, the Military Intelligence Officer Advanced Course, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and the National War College.
Tags: Army Intelligence, Bilderberg Group, CENTCOM, Cybercom, Director of the National Security Agency, Kieth B. Alexander, National Defense University, National Security Agency, Naval Postgraduate School, U.S. Cyber Command