National Security Operations Center on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The National Security Operations Center (NSOC) or Directorate K is the part of the United States
Pictures at the NSA's 60th anniversary
/ref> After the
The Target is Destroyed
1972 establishments in the United States Computer security organizations Government agencies established in 1972 Mass surveillance National Security Agency Signals intelligence agencies Supercomputer sites United States Department of Defense agencies United States government secrecy {{US-gov-stub
The National Security Operations Center (NSOC) or Directorate K is the part of the United States National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...
responsible for current operations and time-sensitive signals intelligence
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...
(SIGINT) reporting for the United States SIGINT System (USSS). It is one of two centers watching; the other being Directorate V or the NTOC which assesses threats.
Functions
NSOC is an operations center on a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week basis, providing total situational awareness across the NSA/CSS enterprise for both foreign Signals Intelligence and Information Assurance, maintaining cognizance of national security information needs, and monitoring unfolding world events.History
In 1969, a U.S. Navy EC-121 patrol plane was shot down over theSea of Japan
The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...
. In the ensuing hours, NSA leaders raced from office to office to gather the information necessary to assemble a coordinated response for the agency and national leadership. This incident demonstrated the need for a dedicated watch center to respond to breaking world events.
The NSA Assistant Director for Production (ADP) at that time, John E. Morrison, Jr., proposed to the Director of NSA ( DIRNSA) that a single National SIGINT watch center be established. The center was established in 1968 as the National SIGINT Watch Center (NSWC) and was renamed into National SIGINT Operations Center (NSOC) in 1973. This "nerve center of the NSA" got its current name in 1996.Top Level TelecommunicationsPictures at the NSA's 60th anniversary
/ref> After the
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
, the NSOC's mission was broadened from a watch center to the operations center it is today.
See also
* Defense Special Missile & Astronautics Center (DEFSMAC) *National Military Command Center
The National Military Command Center (NMCC) is a The Pentagon, Pentagon command and communications center for the National Command Authority (United States), National Command Authority (i.e., the President of the United States and the United Sta ...
(NMCC)
* National Reconnaissance Operations Center (NROC)
* NSA/CSS Threat Operations Center (NTOC)
* White House Situation Room
References
The Target is Destroyed
1972 establishments in the United States Computer security organizations Government agencies established in 1972 Mass surveillance National Security Agency Signals intelligence agencies Supercomputer sites United States Department of Defense agencies United States government secrecy {{US-gov-stub