NSA

The national cryptologic organisation of the United States, responsible for information security and codebreaking.

Description based on the Crypto Museum's crypto glossary. The International Spy Museum recalls the jocular expansion of the acronym – “No Such Agency”.^1,2

According to the Center for Cryptologic History, the NSA was preceded by the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA), created by JCS directive 2010 of 20 May 1949. In December 1951 President Truman ordered a review (the George Brownell committee), which in June 1952 recommended a single communications intelligence agency with greater authority. A revised NSCID No. 9 of 24 October 1952 replaced AFSA with the new agency; on 4 November 1952 General Ralph J. Canine became the first Director of the NSA.³

Among the best-known historical programmes of its predecessors is VENONA: according to the NSA, from February 1943 the US Army's Signal Intelligence Service examined Soviet diplomatic and intelligence communications; the programme was closed down in 1980, and from July 1995 the NSA released some 3,000 translated messages in six instalments.⁴

More in the service card: NSA (National Security Agency).