National Security Agency (NSA) is one of, if not, the largest UCAS intelligence agencies and one of the most significant members of the UCAS Intelligence Community. The purpose of NSA is to collect Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and provide information security, including state-of-the-art encryption, for the UCAS military and government.
NSA is an agency of the Department of Defense, and serves the Secretary of Defense. The director has historically been a three-star lieutenant general or vice admiral. However, NSA also falls under the supervision of the Director of UCAS Intelligence (Currently Rebecca Darby), who had budgetary and management oversight of the agencies in the UCAS intelligence community. NSA is headquartered at Fort Meade, which is outside the Federal District of Columbia in Anne Arundel County, MD.
Signals Intelligence (SIGINT)[]
In the Sixth World, almost all forms of communications are digitized and transmitted over the Matrix, be it e-mail, television, radio, etc. SIGINT is for all intents and purposes the collection and analysis of all of these electronic signals. As an intelligence agency, NSA is expected to be able to collect Matrix transmissions and information broadcast over the air and via satellites, manage the flow and content of data, and analyze it for intelligence-gathering purposes. As a result of the fact that encryption has been a widely-utilized tool to protect the content of transmissions for well over a century, NSA is one of the largest employers of cryptanalysts in the UCAS, if not the world. Likewise, due to the fact that most transmissions are Matrix-based, it has also resulted in NSA employing a large number of deckers who can access even more protected transmissions and datastores.
While most NSA operations can be conducted and managed from the Ft. Meade headquarters and listening posts around the world, it has long been suspected of continuing to operate a covert unit within the Central Security Service (an agency that was merged into what became NSA in the 1960s) that conducts covert operations to install and operate listening devices, and otherwise provide access for the gathering of SIGINT against targets that may be blocking or avoiding the usual means of communicating over existing channels NSA can tap.
Historically, NSA has not had any authority to operate domestically within the United States. However, this changed at some point in the 21st century, and NSA can and has conducted clandestine intelligence-gathering within the UCAS, especially in and around Seattle, in part due to the continued presence of pro-secession activists and movements within the metroplex. It has also been linked to domestic counterintelligence activities, which is generally the jurisdiction of the FBI. The two agencies are often mentioned alongside each other, especially with regards to Seattle, but it is not known how well they coordinate or otherwise work together. NSA has no law enforcement powers, even within the Matrix, which in the UCAS is the exclusive jurisdiction of the Matrix Marshals. It is unknown how closely, if at all, these two agencies cooperate.
Information Security[]
On the flipside, NSA is also responsible for providing secure methods of transmitting information for the military and other entities within the UCAS government. As well as cryptanalysts, they also employee a large number of cryptographers whose job is to create newer and better forms of encryption.
Index[]
- Conspiracy Theories
- Denver: The City of Shadows
- New Seattle
- Runner Havens, 69
- Seattle 2072
- Seattle Sourcebook
- Shadowrun Third Edition, 28
- Spy Games
- State of the Art: 2064
- Target: Matrix
- Shadows of Latin America, 89