United States Special Collections Service
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Central Security Service
Central Security Service
The Central Security Service is an agency of the United States Department of Defense, established in 1972 by a Presidential Directive to promote full partnership between the National Security Agency and the Service Cryptologic Elements of the United States Armed Forces.-Organization:The blue...
agency that is not officially recognized. Its purpose is to put sophisticated eavesdropping equipment- from bugs to parabolic antennas- in difficult-to-reach places. It also attempts to target for recruitment key foreign communications personnel such as database managers systems administrators, and IT specialists.
The Central Security Service
Central Security Service
The Central Security Service is an agency of the United States Department of Defense, established in 1972 by a Presidential Directive to promote full partnership between the National Security Agency and the Service Cryptologic Elements of the United States Armed Forces.-Organization:The blue...
was established by Presidential Directive
Presidential directive
Presidential Directives, better known as Presidential Decision Directives or PDD are a form of an executive order issued by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the National Security Council...
in 1972 to promote full partnership between the 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...
(NSA) and the Service Cryptologic Elements (SCE) of the United States Armed Forces
United States armed forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
. The SCS facility is located in Beltsville, Maryland
Beltsville, Maryland
Beltsville is a census-designated place in northern Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 15,691 at the 2000 census. Beltsville includes the unincorporated community of Vansville.-Geography:...
.
The specialized intelligence gathering capabilities of the Special Collections Service include:
- Clandestine operations involving surveillance and penetration of target facilities, including "black bag" style operations.
- Cryptographic side channel and key recovery attacks involving EMSEC and COMSEC specialties.
- Covert communication capture and relay of target information.
- Operation of unmanned aerial vehicleUnmanned aerial vehicleAn unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...
s for surveillance and perimeter penetration.
The combination of Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
and 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...
resources are used to cover the requisite speciality skills tasked of this agency into a single clandestine intelligence organization that falls under director of NSA and secretary of defense oversight. Given the nature of post 9/11 counter terrorism strategies employed by the United States of America the operations of the Special Collections Service have experienced significant growth in scale and complexity.