Tag Archive for National Security Agency

Meet Catalyst: IARPA’s Entity and Relationship Extraction Program

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is building a computer system capable of automatically analyzing the massive quantities of data gathered across the entire intelligence community and extracting information on specific entities and their relationships to one another. The system which is called Catalyst is part of a larger effort by ODNI to create software and computer systems capable of knowledge management, entity extraction and semantic integration, enabling greater analysis and understanding of complex, multi-source intelligence throughout the government.

(U//FOUO) NSA Social Networking Sites Security Guide

A social networking site (SNS) is a web-based service that allows communities of people to share common interests and/or experiences. Rather than using direct point-to-point communication to stay in touch (e.g., face-toface, phone, text/video messages), SNSs allow users to publish information that can be read later by other users (a one-to-many form of communication) and follow their friend’s postings and provide comments. SNSs provide innovative methods for interacting with friends through third-part applications, such as simple games (tic-tac-toe, paper-rock-scissors), interactive maps to show places visited across the world, and quiz/trivia games which allow for score comparison with others. Many SNSs also allow users to logon from mobile devices that have web browser access to the Internet, allowing them to check and update their accounts from virtually any location with a Wi-Fi or cellular signal.

NSA $3.2 Billion “Site M” Expansion Planning Documents Reveal Cyberwar Command Center

In July 2010, the NSA revealed that it was expanding into a 227-acre parcel of land at Fort Meade called “Site M”, constructing a series of buildings that could cost as much as $5.2 billion. This expansion would displace two golf courses currently occupying the land and provide the NSA, which already occupies 630 acres at Fort Meade, with more space to build “an operational complex and to construct and operate consolidated facilities to meet the National Security Agency’s (NSA) continually evolving requirements and for Intelligence Community use”. The project has been shrouded in secrecy throughout its existence and there are only a few references to “Site M” in DoD budget planning documents. However, a recently discovered collection of development planning documents for the Site M project provide detailed information about the proposed $3.2 billion expansion, indicating that the facility will be a centralized command center for the NSA’s evolving cyberwarfare capabilities.

(U//FOUO) NSA “Site M” Expansion Planning Documents

National Security Agency “Site M” Expansion Development Plan and Anti-Terrorism Force Protection Assessment from May 31, 2011. The Site M Area Development Plan (ADP) for the National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) coordinates the development of facilities on Site M at Fort George G. Meade (Ft. Meade), allowing for growth and expansion over time. Site M development is planned to consist of administrative buildings, operation buildings, High Performance Computing Centers (HPCC) and associated support facilities. The objective of the AT/FP component is to develop a plan for protection of the proposed Site M development. This plan is based on the mandatory DoD minimum antiterrorism standards as well the specific requirements of NSA/CSS Ft. Meade. The plan provides overall guidance for development of the site as well as specific design strategies for key AT/FP components. A layered approach to security has been applied to ensure probability of detection with low false and nuisance alarm rates.

Utah Data Center

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.

Yakima Training Center

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.

Naval Security Group Activity (NAVSECGRUACT) Sugar Grove

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).

2001 EU Parliament Report: Echelon Global Private and Commercial Communications Interception System

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 . . .

Unclassified Inspectors General Report on the President’s Surveillance Program

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.

National Security Agency Headquarters

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.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence Data Mining Report

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is pleased to provide to Congress its second report pursuant to the Data Mining Reporting Act. The Data Mining Reporting Act requires “the head of each departrnent or agency of the Federal Government” that is engaged in an activity to use or develop “data mining,” as defined by the Act, to report annually on such activities to the Congress.