The NSA Office of Strategic Intelligence Issues will host a discussion of changes in the structure of the intelligence community, how the NSA is responding to those changes, and how the role of the NSA intelligence analyst is developing.

Signals Intelligence Directorate donations to the Combined Federal Campaign toward the $750,000 goal will be tracked on the SIDtoday homepage.

An updated version of the software that maintains the signals intelligence production information management system will be available soon, with new features. 

The Virtual Mentor columnist encourages a staffer near retirement to experience new things and take on a new job. The columnist relates a story: Two men in an NSA elevator greeted each other. “What are you doing these days?” one asked. “Oh, I’m coasting ... Just 10 years to go to retirement!” the other said.

Anyone can submit a SIDtoday article, which is more narrowly focused toward signals intelligence collectors than NSA Daily, another regular agency publication, and which takes a “populist” approach, rather than serving as the mouthpiece for management. 

The senior intelligence officer for weapons of mass destruction proliferation will speak at a brown bag seminar on the topic: “If the Intelligence Community was so wrong about Iraq, how can the IC’s WMD assessments on North Korea and Iran be trusted?”

An updated version of the Signals Intelligence Directorate’s policy on developing signals intelligence capabilities is now available on the NSA intranet.

The COMINT (Communications Intelligence) classification marking, along with Special Intelligence, often refers to information derived from foreign communications. However, the marking can also be used for “SIGINT equities that support the production of Communications Intelligence.” For example, secret information-sharing arrangements with foreign governments are classified SI, because these relationships lead to the acquisition of foreign communications. 

The Signals Intelligence Directorate will hold a seminar about “the art of manipulating an adversary’s understanding of their environment” and how information gleaned from signals intelligence can be vital in learning and, potentially, shaping an enemy’s point of view. 

An upcoming seminar will review how “hackers around the world on a constant basis” threaten the Defense Department’s Global Information Grid computer network.

A reader agrees that the signals collection discipline needs to be moved forward along with analysis in the signals intelligence process. 

NSA Cryptologic Support Team members deployed to Iraq have provided Army signals intelligence units with access to collections and analytic tools not previously available at the tactical level. In 2005, signals intelligence support in Iraq has helped to capture and interrogate insurgents and win victories on the battlefield.

A plot by Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi to assassinate the Saudi Crown Prince was revealed by an alleged terrorist during interrogation and corroborated using signals intelligence. 

Global Network Development Activity is a place to experiment on techniques and automation for developing signals intelligence. One of the topics to be discussed in the brown bag is closing the gap for cable accesses, i.e. collecting signals intelligence from fiber optic cables. 

A human resources staffer has been appointed.

The annual prize for the SIDtoday article with the most positive comments was awarded for a personal perspective on deployment to Iraq. 

There will be a ceremony for winners of the Language Keystone Award. 

It has always frustrated analysts when GSM cellular networks implement Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identities, which obscure a code, known as IMSI, that uniquely and persistently identifies the cellphone. The "ASSOCIATION" program has solved this problem by mapping TMSI to IMSI.

The Collection Strategies and Requirements Center has realigned functions and personnel to better serve as the “front door” for data acquisition throughout the NSA and with external partners. 

An airborne communications intelligence collection system was provided to Finland through an NSA "accommodation buy" involving systems from Northrop Grumman and British Aerospace engineering. The system was installed on a Finnish spy plane; a test flight with NSA representatives came within 12 miles of the Russian border.

In March 2004, the Army visited the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade requesting more signals intelligence capability in the field. Previously, the NSA had provided support at the unit or headquarter level, but the Army requested unit-level deployments. After much internal debate about training and resources required, the NSA began deploying an additional 25 staff to Iraq every six months as "Cryptologic Support Teams." The Army credits the NSA with "countless mission successes."

The NSA has pulled together a new team to work on drafting original articles to contribute to intelligence community publications distributed to the executive branch, particularly the president's daily brief. An NSA staffer has officially joined the president’s analytic support staff — the first NSA employee to have such a high-level role — and there are additional open positions on this team.

A new separate database provides Signals Intelligence Directorate personnel access to Homeland Security documents from the department's Office of Information Analysis, including information from Customs and Border Protection.

A new policy allows for more rapid sharing of signals intelligence with other branches of government and allies, as long as agents comply with the appropriate regulations. Open sharing represents a “major cultural shift” for the NSA, and as the agency drafts new policies, analysts must judge whether information they find is both eligible and appropriate for sharing. 

A new tool combines open-source and commercial data with signals intelligence to track how targets access the internet. Possible uses include tracking target movement and steering collection “towards links with higher intelligence potential.”

The senior leadership team of the Czech External Intelligence Service visited the NSA to solidify the agencies’ relationship. The Czechs provided the NSA with signals intelligence on Russian counterintelligence targets. UZSI is expected to become a formal third-party partner in the near future.

The NSA is leading the effort to define capabilities for the forthcoming Next Generation Overhead SIGINT system, which will shape satellite acquisitions and ground-processing capabilities from 2012 through 2030. “To get to NGOS, we need to build a community consensus about what is buildable, affordable, and desirable.”

A Signals Intelligence Directorate employee created a collage from weather images depicting an NSA courtyard at all hours of the day. 

Description of the Collection Strategies and Requirement Center’s new Signal Survey Management portfolio, a central website that aims to be “the focal point for all signal surveys supporting the Intelligence Community.”

A top-secret session outlining gaps in cable access programs has been rescheduled.