"The ability to understand the secret communications of our foreign adversaries while protecting our own communications -- a capability in which the United States leads the world -- gives our nation a unique advantage."
Executive
Order 12333, dated 4 December 1981, describes the responsibility
of the National Security Agency and the Central Security Service
(NSA/CSS) in more detail. The resources of NSA/CSS are organized
for the accomplishment of two national missions:
- The
Information Assurance mission provides the solutions, products,
and services, and conducts defensive information operations,
to achieve information assurance for information infrastructures
critical to U.S. national security interests.
- The
foreign signals intelligence or SIGINT mission allows for an
effective, unified organization and control of all the foreign
signals collection and processing activities of the United States.
NSA is authorized to produce SIGINT in accordance with objectives, requirements, and priorities established by the Director of National Intelligence in consultation with the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
