Turbulence (NSA)
Encyclopedia
Turbulence is a National Security Agency
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...

 Information Technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

 project started circa 2005. It was developed in small, inexpensive "test" pieces rather than one grand plan like its failed predecessor, the Trailblazer Project
Trailblazer Project
Trailblazer was a United States National Security Agency program intended to analyze data carried on communications networks like the internet. It was able to track communication methods such as cell phones and e-mail...

. It also includes offensive cyber-warfare capabilities, like injecting malware
Malware
Malware, short for malicious software, consists of programming that is designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, or gain unauthorized access to system resources, or that otherwise exhibits abusive behavior...

 into remote computers. Congress criticized Turbulence in 2007 for having similar bureaucratic problems as Trailblazer.

According to Siobhan Gorman in a 2007 Baltimore Sun article, "The conclusion in Congress, two former government officials said, was that Turbulence was over budget, not delivering and poorly led, and that there was little or no strategy to pull it all together."

The Trailblazer Project had been cancelled in the mid-2000s after a Congressional investigation and Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

 Inspector General report found it overbudget, wasteful, and ineffective. One of the Trailblazer whistleblowers who helped with the DoD Inspector General report, Thomas Andrews Drake
Thomas Andrews Drake
Thomas Andrews Drake is a former senior official of the U.S. National Security Agency , decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran, computer software expert, linguist, management and leadership specialist, and whistleblower. In 2010 the government alleged that he 'mishandled'...

, was later charged with the Espionage Act of 1917
Espionage Act of 1917
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law passed on June 15, 1917, shortly after the U.S. entry into World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code but is now found under Title 18, Crime...

for allegedly retaining 5 documents in his home. Two of those documents were about Turbulence; his defense points out that one of these documents is clearly marked "UNCLASSIFIED" and the other was declassified shortly after his indictment.
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