WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency, the largest electronic spy agency in the world, is undertaking a reorganization, merging its offensive and defensive organizations in the hope of making them more adept at facing the digital threats of the 21st century, according to current and former officials.
In place of the Signals Intelligence and Information Assurance directorates, the organizations that historically have spied on foreign targets and defended classified networks against spying, the NSA is creating a Directorate of Operations that combines the operational elements of each.
"This traditional approach we have where we created these two cylinders of excellence and then built walls of granite between them really is not the way for us to do business," said agency Director Michael Rogers, hinting at the reorganization -- dubbed NSA21 -- that is expected to be publicly rolled out this week.
"We've gotta be flat," he told an audience at the Atlantic Council last month. "We've gotta be agile."
Some lawmakers who have been briefed on the broad outlines consider restructuring a smart thing to do because an increasing amount of intelligence and threat activity is coursing through global computer networks.
"When it comes to cyber in particular, the line between collection capabilities and our own vulnerabilities -- between the acquisition of signals intelligence and the assurance of our own information -- is virtually nonexistent," said Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "What is a vulnerability to be patched at home is often a potential collection opportunity abroad and vice versa."
But there have been rumblings of discontent within the NSA, which is based at Fort Meade, Md., as some fear a loss of influence or stature.
Some advocates for the comparatively small Information Assurance Directorate, which has about 3,000 people, fear that its ability to work with industry on cybersecurity issues will be undermined if it is viewed as part of the much larger signals intelligence collection arm, which has about eight times as many personnel. The latter spies on overseas targets by hacking into computer networks, collecting satellite signals and capturing radio waves.
"The NSA21 initiative will ensure the National Security Agency continues to be the pre-eminent signals intelligence and information assurance organization in the world," said Jonathan Freed, director of strategic communications at the NSA. "These core missions are critical as we position NSA to face complex and evolving threats to the nation. Out of respect for our workforce, we cannot comment on any details or speculation before the plan is announced."
The change comes about a year after the CIA did its own revamping, ending divisions that have been in place for decades and creating new centers that team analysts with operators. The NSA's new directorate of operations also will place analysts with operators.
Rogers in a speech in December characterized the change as "among the most comprehensive" at the NSA since the late 1990s. He began the effort about a year ago, giving a team of employees from across the agency what he called the "director's charge." Among the questions they were asked: How can the agency better innovate? And how "do we inculcate collaboration and integration" in operations?
A Section on 02/03/2016