June 28, 2021
NSA’s Women in STEM: Pursuing Passions in Problem Solving
Deputy Chief Information Officer La’Naia Jones’ path to the National Security Agency began just down the road near Annapolis, Maryland, where her passion for problem solving grew while she attended grade school.
June 24, 2021
Diversity and Inclusion in the IC and Around the Globe
FORT MEADE, Md. — Earlier this year, representatives from each of the Five Eyes partners’ respective Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Agender /Asexual + (LGBTQIA+) affinity groups established a regular forum to share ideas, successes, challenges, and support each other in breaking down barriers and building inclusion across our respective workforces.
June 22, 2021
NSA Funds Development, Release of D3FEND
FT. MEADE, Md. — D3FEND, a framework for cybersecurity professionals to tailor defenses against specific cyber threats is now available through MITRE. NSA funded MITRE’s research for D3FEND to improve the cybersecurity of National Security Systems, the Department of Defense, and the Defense Industrial Base. The D3FEND technical knowledge base of defensive countermeasures for common offensive techniques is complementary to MITRE’s ATT&CK, a knowledge base of cyber adversary behavior.
June 21, 2021
The Hungarian Code Writers
FORT MEADE, Md. — Most people today are familiar with the Native American Code Talkers of World War II, who used their native languages — often unintelligible to non-members of their tribe — to transmit important tactical communications in the war against Germany and Japan.
June 18, 2021
Science of Security Enhances Research Publishing
FT. MEADE, Md. — This year’s 8th annual Hot Topics of Science of Security (HoTSoS) conference pioneered a new type of cybersecurity conference—one centered on providing community input to ongoing research and collective community participation in defining the next decade of cybersecurity research.
June 17, 2021
NSA Releases Guidance on Securing Unified Communications and Voice and Video over IP Systems
FORT MEADE, Md. — NSA released a Cybersecurity Technical Report today that provides best practices and mitigations for securing Unified Communications (UC) and Voice and Video over IP (VVoIP) call-processing systems. The comprehensive report, “Deploying Secure Unified Communications/Voice and Video over IP Systems,” also describes potential risks to UC/VVoIP systems that aren’t properly secured.
June 7, 2021
Linda Burger, NSA Director of the Office of Research and Technology Applications (ORTA) elected Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) Executive Board Chair
During the 2021 Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) National Meeting, Linda Burger, Director of the NSA Office of Research and Technology Applications (ORTA), was elected to serve as the FLC Executive Board Chair, the organization’s highest elected position. She will serve a two-year term starting in October 2021.
June 4, 2021
Water Shortage
The story about Communications Intelligence (COMINT) and World War II’s Battle of Midway is now well known. The U.S. Navy COMINT system in early 1942 had intercepted detailed information about a major impending Japanese operation against the Americans, scheduled for June. Navy cryptanalysts had solved enough of the Japanese enciphered code system, known to them as JN-25, to provide Admiral Chester Nimitz with detailed intelligence about the enemy naval forces coming against him.
May 28, 2021
Women in STEM: Hieu-Hanh Do, Information System Security Officer
FT. MEADE, Md. — As advances across the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) continue to be pivotal in the way NSA accomplishes our mission, NSA’s office of Capabilities is committed to empowering women to take an active role in that transformation. Read on to find out how Information System Security Officer Hieu-Hanh Do went from becoming an accountant to serving as an Information System Security Officer.
May 19, 2021
NSA’s Role in the President’s Cyber Executive Order
FORT MEADE, Md. — The National Security Agency (NSA) will play an important role in implementing the requirements of an Executive Order (EO) that was recently signed by President Biden. The EO, entitled Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, is designed to modernize cybersecurity defenses, improve information-sharing between the Federal Government and private sector on cyber issues, and strengthen the ability of the United States to respond to cyber incidents when they occur.