The Black Chamber, officially the Cable and Telegraph Section and also known as the Cipher Bureau, was the first peacetime cryptanalytic organization in the United States, operating from 1917 to 1929. It was a forerunner of the National Security Agency (NSA).
Black Chamber cryptanalytic work sheet for solving a Japanese diplomatic cipher, 1919
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 processing of information and data for foreign and domestic intelligence and counterintelligence purposes, specializing in a discipline known as signals intelligence (SIGINT). The NSA is also tasked with the protection of U.S. communications networks and information systems. The NSA relies on a variety of measures to accomplish its mission, the majority of which are clandestine. The NSA has roughly 32,000 employees.
NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, c. 1986
Black Chamber cryptanalytic work sheet for solving Japanese diplomatic cipher, 1919
Protesters against NSA data mining in Berlin wearing Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden masks
Intercepted packages are opened carefully by NSA employees
