Richard Ledgett | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 18th Deputy Director of the National Security Agency | |
| In office 2014–2017 | |
| President | Barack Obama Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | John C. Inglis |
| Succeeded by | George C. Barnes |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Unit | Signals Intelligence |
Richard H. Ledgett Jr. is a former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency. [1]
Ledgett has an undergraduate degree in psychology and a graduate degree in strategic intelligence.
In 1988,he began working for the National Security Agency,where he served in a variety of positions in the cybersecurity division.
Previous positions at NSA included Deputy Director for Analysis and Production (2009–2010),Deputy Director for Data Acquisition (2006–2009),Assistant Deputy Director for Data Acquisition (2005–2006),and Chief,NSA/CSS Pacific (2002–2005).
From 2012 to 2013 he was the Director of the NSA/CSS Threat Operations Center,responsible for round-the-clock cryptologic activities to discover and counter adversary cyber efforts.
From June 2013 to his appointment as Deputy Director in January 2014,Ledgett headed the investigation of leaks regarding NSA surveillance programs made by Edward Snowden. [2]
On February 3,2017,Ledgett announced that he would be retiring in the spring. [3] His successor was George C. Barnes. [4]
In October 2020,Ledgett signed a letter stating the Biden laptop story “has the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” [5]
On August 15,2017,Ledgett was elected to M&T Bank Corporation's Board of Directors. [6]
Ledgett pledged increased transparency regarding NSA operations. He defended the operations of the NSA and argued in a rare interview with Reuters that NSA operations are completely legal. [7] Ledgett also accused the media of sensationalizing reports about various NSA mass surveillance programs. [8]
In March 2014,Ledgett stated during a TED Talk that the NSA operates legally. He further argued that President James Madison would be proud of the way in which Constitutional checks and balances have governed NSA mass surveillance. [8]
 NSA Exceptional Civilian Service Medal |
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level 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 and domestic 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 existence of the NSA was not revealed until 1975. The NSA has roughly 32,000 employees.
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.
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James Robert Clapper Jr. is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Air Force and former Director of National Intelligence. Clapper has held several key positions within the United States Intelligence Community. He served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) from 1992 until 1995. He was the first director of defense intelligence within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and simultaneously the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. He served as the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) from September 2001 until June 2006.
William Edward Binney is a former intelligence official with the United States National Security Agency (NSA) and whistleblower. He retired on October 31,2001,after more than 30 years with the agency.
PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communications from various U.S. internet companies. The program is also known by the SIGAD US-984XN. PRISM collects stored internet communications based on demands made to internet companies such as Google LLC under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to turn over any data that match court-approved search terms. Among other things,the NSA can use these PRISM requests to target communications that were encrypted when they traveled across the internet backbone,to focus on stored data that telecommunication filtering systems discarded earlier,and to get data that is easier to handle.
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Edward Joseph Snowden is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant and whistleblower who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013,when he was an employee and subcontractor. His disclosures revealed numerous global surveillance programs,many run by the NSA and the Five Eyes intelligence alliance with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments and prompted a cultural discussion about national security and individual privacy.
Ongoing news reports in the international media have revealed operational details about the Anglophone cryptographic agencies' global surveillance of both foreign and domestic nationals. The reports mostly emanate from a cache of top secret documents leaked by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden,which he obtained whilst working for Booz Allen Hamilton,one of the largest contractors for defense and intelligence in the United States. In addition to a trove of U.S. federal documents,Snowden's cache reportedly contains thousands of Australian,British,Canadian and New Zealand intelligence files that he had accessed via the exclusive "Five Eyes" network. In June 2013,the first of Snowden's documents were published simultaneously by The Washington Post and The Guardian,attracting considerable public attention. The disclosure continued throughout 2013,and a small portion of the estimated full cache of documents was later published by other media outlets worldwide,most notably The New York Times,the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,the Australian Broadcasting Corporation,Der Spiegel (Germany),O Globo (Brazil),Le Monde (France),L'espresso (Italy),NRC Handelsblad,Dagbladet (Norway),El País (Spain),and Sveriges Television (Sweden).
The global surveillance disclosure released to media by Edward Snowden has caused tension in the bilateral relations of the United States with several of its allies and economic partners as well as in its relationship with the European Union. In August 2013,U.S. President Barack Obama announced the creation of "a review group on intelligence and communications technologies" that would brief and later report to him. In December,the task force issued 46 recommendations that,if adopted,would subject the National Security Agency (NSA) to additional scrutiny by the courts,Congress,and the president,and would strip the NSA of the authority to infiltrate American computer systems using "backdoors" in hardware or software. Geoffrey R. Stone,a White House panel member,said there was no evidence that the bulk collection of phone data had stopped any terror attacks.
The ANT catalog is a classified product catalog by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) of which the version written in 2008–2009 was published by German news magazine Der Spiegel in December 2013. Forty-nine catalog pages with pictures,diagrams and descriptions of espionage devices and spying software were published. The items are available to the Tailored Access Operations unit and are mostly targeted at products from US companies such as Apple,Cisco and Dell. The source is believed to be someone different than Edward Snowden,who is largely responsible for the global surveillance disclosures since 2013. Companies whose products could be compromised have denied any collaboration with the NSA in developing these capabilities. In 2014,a project was started to implement the capabilities from the ANT catalog as open-source hardware and software.
The Fourth Amendment Protection Acts,are a collection of state legislation aimed at withdrawing state support for bulk data (metadata) collection and ban the use of warrant-less data in state courts. They are proposed nullification laws that,if enacted as law,would prohibit the state governments from co-operating with the National Security Agency,whose mass surveillance efforts are seen as unconstitutional by the proposals' proponents. Specific examples include the Kansas Fourth Amendment Preservation and Protection Act and the Arizona Fourth Amendment Protection Act. The original proposals were made in 2013 and 2014 by legislators in the American states of Utah,Washington,Arizona,Kansas,Missouri,Oklahoma and California. Some of the bills would require a warrant before information could be released,whereas others would forbid state universities from doing NSA research or hosting NSA recruiters,or prevent the provision of services such as water to NSA facilities.
The USA Freedom Act is a U.S. law enacted on June 2,2015,that restored and modified several provisions of the Patriot Act,which had expired the day before. The act imposes some new limits on the bulk collection of telecommunication metadata on U.S. citizens by American intelligence agencies,including the National Security Agency. It also restores authorization for roving wiretaps and tracking lone wolf terrorists. The title of the act is a ten-letter backronym that stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring Act of 2015.
Proposed reforms of mass surveillance by the United States are a collection of diverse proposals offered in response to the Global surveillance disclosures of 2013.
U.S. president Barack Obama has received widespread criticism due to his support of government surveillance. President Obama released many statements on mass surveillance as a result.
Commentary on Edward Snowden's disclosure is part of the reactions to global surveillance disclosures made by Edward Snowden.
MYSTIC is a former secret program used since 2009 by the US National Security Agency (NSA) to collect the metadata as well as the content of phone calls from several countries. The program was first revealed in March 2014,based upon documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
Wikimedia Foundation,et al. v. National Security Agency,et al. is a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation and several other organizations against the National Security Agency (NSA),the United States Department of Justice (DOJ),and other named individuals,alleging mass surveillance of Wikipedia users carried out by the NSA. The suit claims the surveillance system,which NSA calls "Upstream",breaches the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,which protects freedom of speech,and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution,which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.
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