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NSA Creates Cybersecurity Directorate

The organization will help secure weapon systems and the defense industry.

The NSA's new Cybersecurity Directorate will initially focus on securing weapon systems and the defense industrial base. Credit: Shutterstock/honglouwawa

The National Security Agency (NSA) has created a new Cybersecurity Directorate as a recognition that “the best defense against devastating cyber attacks is to unify as a nation against our threats,” the agency has announced.

The announcement describes the directorate as “a major organization that unifies NSA’s foreign intelligence and cyber defense missions” and says that the NSA will work to prevent and eradicate threats to national security systems and critical infrastructure, with an initial focus on the defense industrial base and the improvement of weapons security.

In addition, the Cybersecurity Directorate is expected to “reinvigorate NSA’s white hat mission by sharing critical threat information and collaborating with partners and customers to better equip them to defend against malicious cyber activity,” according to the announcement.

The new directorate also will better position NSA to operationalize its threat intelligence, vulnerability assessments, and cyber defense expertise by integrating these efforts to deliver prioritized outcomes.