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What Is the NSA?

NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland

The National Security Agency (NSA) is America's largest intelligence service. Yes, it's bigger than the CIA. It employs more people, consumes more cash, and gathers far more data than the better known Central Intelligence Agency.

So why does the CIA get all the attention? Because that's exactly the way the NSA likes it. For decades, the U.S. government didn't even admit that the NSA existed. It did its work secretly, governed only by executive order. The joke for those in the know was that NSA stood for "No Such Agency."

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