Analysis: US commentator argues in favor of breaking up NSA

NSA HQ

By IAN ALLEN| intelNews.org |
The US National Security Agency (NSA) is a gigantic intelligence organization –the world’s largest– which is tasked by the US government with worldwide communications surveillance, as well as communications security. But Wired magazine’s Noah Shachtman explains that the NSA’s two-fold mission forces two essentially distinct agencies to coexist under one roof. There’s the signals-intelligence directorate, the Big Brothers who, it is said, can tap into any electronic communication. And there’s the information-assurance directorate, the cybersecurity nerds whose job is to make sure the US government’s computers and telecommunications systems are hacker- and eavesdropper-free. In other words, there’s a locked-down spy division and a relatively open geek division, says Shachtman. The problem is, their goals are often in direct opposition to each other. One team wants to exploit software holes; the other wants to repair them. It doesn’t make sense to have both of them on the same playing field, he argues. His solution? Break up the NSA, separating the sysadmins from the spooks.