National Security Agency - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

National Security Agency surveillance
Map of global NSA data collection as of 2007[update], with countries subject to the most data collection shown in red
Programs Pre-1978 ECHELON MINARET SHAMROCK PROMIS Since 1978 Upstream collection BLARNEY FAIRVIEW Main Core ThinThread Genoa Since 1990 RAMPART-A Since 1998 Tailored Access Operations Since 2001 OAKSTAR STORMBREW Trailblazer Turbulence Genoa II Total Information Awareness President's Surveillance Program Terrorist Surveillance Program Since 2007 PRISM Dropmire Stateroom Bullrun MYSTIC Databases, tools etc. PINWALE MARINA Main Core MAINWAY TRAFFICTHIEF DISHFIRE XKeyscore ICREACH BOUNDLESSINFORMANT GCHQ collaboration MUSCULAR Tempora
Legislation Safe Streets Act Privacy Act of 1974 FISA ECPA Patriot Act Homeland Security Act Protect America Act of 2007 FISA Amendments Act of 2008
Institutions FISC Senate Intelligence Committee National Security Council
Lawsuits ACLU v. NSA Hepting v. AT&T Jewel v. NSA Clapper v. Amnesty Klayman v. Obama ACLU v. Clapper Wikimedia v. NSA US v. Moalin
Whistleblowers William Binney Thomas Drake Mark Klein Thomas Tamm Russ Tice Edward Snowden
Publication 2005 warrantless surveillance scandal Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present)
Related Cablegate Surveillance of reporters Mail tracking UN diplomatic spying Insider Threat Program Mass surveillance in the United States Mass surveillance in the United Kingdom
Concepts SIGINT Metadata
Collaboration United States CSS CYBERCOM DOJ FBI CIA DHS IAO Five Eyes CSEC GCHQ ASD GCSB Other DGSE BND
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The National Security Agency (NSA) is part of the US government. The agency was started in 1952, and its main office is in Maryland.

Its stated goal is to protect the US people by

• Worldwide "earsdropping," secretly listening to what people are saying in other countries. It monitors, collects, decodes, translates and analyses information and data. That is known as signals intelligence (SIGINT).
• Protecting the US from eavesdropping and SIGINT spying by foreign governments and agencies, called "penetration and network warfare."^[1][2] The agency does so by clandestine (secret) means,^[3] such as bugging electronic systems,^[4] and sabotaging their computer networks with viral software.^[5][6]

• Central Intelligence Agency
• Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Venona project

• Official NSA website
• NSA for kids Archived 2006-06-15 at the Wayback Machine

• Bamford, James, The Puzzle Palace, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-006748-5.
• Bamford, James, The Shadow Factory, Anchor Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-307-27939-2.
• Church Committee, Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans: 1976 US Senate Report on Illegal Wiretaps and Domestic Spying by the FBI, CIA and NSA, Red and Black Publishers (May 1, 2008).
• Hanyok, Robert J. (2002). Spartans in Darkness: American SIGINT and the Indochina War, 1945–1975. National Security Agency. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
• Aid, Matthew, The Secret Sentry: The Untold History of the National Security Agency, 432 pages, ISBN 978-1-59691-515-2, Bloomsbury Press (June 9, 2009).
• Shaker, Richard J. "The Agency That Came in from the Cold." (Archive, Archive #2) Notices. American Mathematical Society. May/June 1992 pp. 408–411.
• Jackson, David (June 18, 2013). "Obama: NSA surveillance programs are 'transparent'". USA Today. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
• "National Security Agency Releases History of Cold War Intelligence Activities." George Washington University. National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 260. Posted November 14, 2008.
• "The NSA Files". The Guardian. London. June 8, 2013.