National Security Agency - The Black Vault

2000s
2000s
The Mobility Mission Leader was appointed
in 2009 and a Mobility Mission Management
Office followed in the summer of 2010 to
prove the value of implementing the CSfC
model to deliver assured Mobility solutions.
A matrixed NSA team created a highly
successful pilot project using primarily
commercial solutions to exchange secure
voice and data on commercial mobile devices.
NSA will continue to innovate, test, and
stay at the cutting edge of the mobility
ecosystem to ensure anywhere, anytime
access for classified government users and to
influence the direction of security solutions
throughout the federal government and in the
private sector.
Secure Mobile Environment Portable Electronic Device.
NSA’s Public Perception
As the years passed and the environment
changed, so too did the outlook of NSA’s
leadership, and once again NSA heightened
its public profile. NSA’s senior leadership can
be seen giving high-profile presentations at
technical conferences and events throughout
the country, from General Alexander’s first
appearance at the 2009 RSA Conference to
the Agency’s participation in a documentary
with the National Geographic channel.
For the first time since before 9/11, NSA
allowed documentary cameras to go behind
the closed doors of NSA and deep inside
some of the Agency’s watch center floors.
“Inside the NSA” aired on the National
Geographic channel in January 2012 and
featured interviews with NSA leaders and
cryptologists about the Agency’s critical role
in protecting the country.
Hiring Boom
NSA’s hiring efforts fluctuated over the last
six decades as the demands on the Agency
evolved. The ‘90s saw a decrease in hiring and
a push for retirements. However, after 9/11,
the trend reversed and the Agency was faced
with the need to hire more professionals than
ever in the Science, Technology, Engineering
and Math (STEM) fields, foreign language,
intelligence analysis, and others. In 2004 NSA
began an effort to hire between 1,200 and
1,500 new employees a year for the next six
years to meet the increasing demands placed
on the ever-changing Intelligence Community.
In 2011 NSA took its hiring efforts into
a new realm. To help recruit tech-savvy
professionals to support the Agency’s cyber
security initiatives, NSA introduced several
high-tech recruitment tools. These new
digital communications – NSA Career Links
Smartphone application, Crypto Mobile Game
application, and Smartphone tagging – were
designed to entice prospective employees to
consider a career with NSA. Both 2011 and
2012 saw two of the largest hiring efforts in
the Agency’s history, with over 1,600 hires in
2011 and an expected 1,900 new employees
in 2012.
Future Goals and Missions
The mission of NSA/CSS for 60 years has been
to provide actionable Signals Intelligence to
our customers, and to provide and protect
the Nation’s most important communications,
all through the art and science of cryptology.
NSA’s activities, products, services, and
information save lives and defend vital
networks. To stay ahead of the Nation’s
adversaries, NSA is constantly adjusting and
improving its capabilities to protect the
Nation in this digital age. While technology,
capabilities, and targets may change, NSA’s
core missions of Signals Intelligence and
Information Assurance remain the same.
Centers of
Academic
Excellence
The “Centers of Excellence”
program was started as a joint effort
between NSA and the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) to reduce
vulnerability in our national information
infrastructure by promoting and
cultivating interest in Information
Assurance (IA). Educational institutions
were invited to apply for NSA/DHS
certification. The applications were
evaluated on specific criteria about
the faculty, coursework, and resources
devoted to IA.
This focus on promoting IA at
universities led to the development
of more professionals in IA-related
disciplines, as well as recognition for
the school and scholarship and grant
opportunities for students. In 2012
NSA and the DHS jointly sponsored
several National Centers of Excellence
in IA programs for four-year colleges,
graduate-level universities, and some
two-year colleges. NSA also launched
a new National Centers of Academic
Excellence in Cyber Operations
Program to ultimately yield a larger
pool of professionals with expertise in
cyber security. n
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