Overview

President Harry Truman created the National Security Agency in 1952, during the midst of the Korean War, without the knowledge or approval of Congress. The secret agency focuses on "signals intelligence" - finding or intercepting communications from American adversaries and deciphering their meaning. It began with about 10,000 employees and by 1978 had more than 68,000 analysts, code-breakers and information specialists under its auspices.

Much of the work done by the NSA is still a closely held secret, but it is best known for code-breaking and eavesdropping on radio, Internet, telephone, or other intercepted communications. It has its own military force, the Central Security Service, which helps gather data, using a fleet of ships, submarines, aircraft, and more. The modern NSA vacuums up reams of communications data and processes it using complex algorithms and immense supercomputing systems.

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