NSA to Form New Cybersecurity Directorate

The National Security Agency announced plans to form a cybersecurity directorate later this year as part of a larger initiative to fuse its offensive and defensive operations, a years-long ongoing integration that has broadened under the leadership of General Paul Nakasone.

As the NSA has undergone reorganizations in recent years, it has lost its emphasis on cybersecurity, said Gen. Nakasone during the International Conference on Cyber Security at Fordham University, the Wall Street Journal reports. The new directorate is intended to once again make security a priority by combining it with the NSA's foreign intelligence projects and increasing its focus on both national security networks and the defense industrial base.

Anne Neuberger has been appointed head of the new directorate, which will reportedly leverage more signals intelligence from operations against US adversaries. Its goal is to strengthen national security by sharing intel with other federal agencies and private companies. The directorate will take the place of the NSA's current information assurance directorate.

Neuberger, who currently sits on the NSA board of directors, was its first chief risk officer and part of the team that helped build Cyber Command. In the past year she has overseen the NSA's election security efforts leading up to, and during, the 2018 midterms, which the WSJ says saw more aggressive efforts from the NSA and the US Cyber Command to defend against Russian interference and share more information with agencies including the FBI and DHS.

In her new role, Neuberger will report to Gen. Nakasone. Read more details here.