The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes, specializing in a discipline known as signals intelligence (SIGINT). The NSA is also tasked with the protection of U.S. communications networks and information systems. The NSA relies on a variety of measures to accomplish its mission, the majority of which are clandestine. The NSA has roughly 32,000 employees.
The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a senior cabinet-level United States government official, required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as executive head of the United States Intelligence Community (IC) and to direct and oversee the National Intelligence Program (NIP). All IC agencies report directly to the DNI. The DNI also serves, upon invitation, as an advisor to the president of the United States, the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council on all intelligence matters. The DNI, supported by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), produces the President's Daily Brief (PDB), a classified document including intelligence from all IC agencies, handed each morning to the president of the United States.
The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the federal government of the United States that provide information and analysis for leaders of the executive and legislative branches. The Committee was established in 1976 by the 94th Congress.
The Church Committee was a US Senate select committee in 1975 that investigated abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Chaired by Idaho Senator Frank Church (D-ID), the committee was part of a series of investigations into intelligence abuses in 1975, dubbed the "Year of Intelligence", including its House counterpart, the Pike Committee, and the presidential Rockefeller Commission. The committee's efforts led to the establishment of the permanent US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Ronald Anthony MarksFRSA is a former senior Central Intelligence Agency official and Capitol Hill Staffer. He is currently Chairman and CEO of ZPN Cyber and National Security Strategies and an academic focused on Cyber and Intelligence policy issues. His book "Spying in America in the Post 9/11 World: Domestic Threat and the Need for Change," published by Praeger Publishing, focuses on the vast expansion of intelligence collection in America and the need for careful oversight.
Keith Brian Alexander is a retired four-star general of the United States Army, who served as director of the National Security Agency, chief of the Central Security Service, and commander of the United States Cyber Command. He previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), United States Army from 2003 to 2005. He assumed the positions of Director of the National Security Agency and Chief of the Central Security Service on August 1, 2005, and the additional duties as Commander United States Cyber Command on May 21, 2010.
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) is an independent agency within the executive branch of the United States government, established by Congress in 2004 to advise the President and other senior executive branch officials to ensure that concerns with respect to privacy and civil liberties in the United States are appropriately considered in the development and implementation of all laws, regulations, and executive branch policies related to terrorism.
Michael Vincent Hayden is a retired United States Air Force four-star general and former Director of the National Security Agency, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He also serves as a professor at the George Mason University – Schar School of Policy and Government. Hayden currently co-chairs the Bipartisan Policy Center's Electric Grid Cyber Security Initiative.
John Chris Inglis, generally known as Chris Inglis, is an American government official who served as the first National Cyber Director. Inglis is also a former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency. On April 12, 2021 President Joe Biden nominated Inglis to serve as the first National Cyber Director. His nomination was confirmed by the Senate by voice vote on June 17, 2021. He was sworn into office on July 11, 2021. He resigned from the position on February 15, 2023.
United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense (DoD). It unifies the direction of cyberspace operations, strengthens DoD cyberspace capabilities, and integrates and bolsters DoD's cyber expertise which focus on securing cyberspace.
Caryn Wagner was the Department of Homeland Security’s Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis from February 11, 2010, to December 21, 2012. As such, she was DHS's Chief Intelligence Officer (CINT), in charge of the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis with responsibilities over the DHS component intelligence services. She was the first woman to serve in this position, after extensive experience in the U.S. Intelligence Community and on Capitol Hill.
Michael S. Rogers is a retired four-star admiral of the United States Navy. Rogers served as the second commander of the United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) from April 2014 to May 2018 while concurrently serving as the 17th director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and as chief of the Central Security Service (CSS). During his tenure, he helped transform and elevate U.S. Cyber Command into a unified combatant command. Rogers relinquished command to General Paul M. Nakasone on May 4, 2018 and retired from the Navy a few weeks later on June 1, 2018.
Paul Miki Nakasone is a retired general in the United States Army who served as the commander of United States Cyber Command. He concurrently served as the director of the National Security Agency and as chief of the Central Security Service. Nakasone took command of the United States Second Army and Army Cyber Command in October 2016, until the Second Army's inactivation in March 2017. In May 2018, he became head of the National Security Agency, the Central Security Service and the United States Cyber Command.
The Strengthening State and Local Cyber Crime Fighting Act of 2017 is a bill introduced in the United States House of Representatives by U.S. Representative John Ratcliffe (R-Texas). The bill would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize the National Computer Forensics Institute, with the intent of providing local and state officials with resources to better handle cybercrime threats. Ratcliffe serves as the current chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for cybersecurity and infrastructure protection across all levels of government, coordinating cybersecurity programs with U.S. states, and improving the government's cybersecurity protections against private and nation-state hackers.
Joe Biden assumed office as President of the United States on January 20, 2021. The president has the authority to nominate members of his Cabinet to the United States Senate for confirmation under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.
Timothy D. Haugh is a United States Air Force general who serves as the commander of the United States Cyber Command, director of the National Security Agency, and chief of the Central Security Service. He previously served as the deputy commander of the United States Cyber Command.
Jen Easterly is an American intelligence and former military official who is serving as the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the Biden administration. She was confirmed by a voice vote in the Senate on July 12, 2021.
The Office of the National Cyber Director is an agency in the United States Government statutorily responsible for advising the President of the United States on matters related to cybersecurity. It was established in 2021.
