FORT MEADE, Md. — The National Security Agency (NSA) today released two technical reports addressing threats to application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) during the design and manufacturing process. The reports — ASIC Best Practices Threat Catalog and the Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Level of Assurance 1 (LoA1) Best Practices — explain the threats against ASICs and recommend mitigations to reduce risk.