America’s National Security Agency has launched a new organization to beef up the country’s defenses against cyber-attackers. 

The Cybersecurity Directorate has been created to unify the efforts of the NSA‘s existing foreign intelligence and cyber-defense missions. The new organization will bring the Agency’s threat detection, future-technologies, and cyber-defense personnel together under one roof for the very first time.

Underpinning the creation of the directorate is the idea that forming partnerships to allow intelligence and technical expertise to be pooled and operationalized represents America’s best chance of thwarting cyber-adversaries. 

A spokesperson for the NSA said: “Many organizations work tirelessly to protect against today’s threats and tomorrow’s risks, but the adversaries are tenacious, and they only need to be successful once.

“The Cybersecurity Directorate will reinvigorate NSA’s white hat mission by sharing critical threat information and collaborating with partners and customers to better equip them to defend against malicious cyber activity.

“The new directorate will also better position NSA to operationalize its threat intelligence, vulnerability assessments, and cyber-defense expertise by integrating these efforts to deliver prioritized outcomes.” 

One of the NSA’s partners is the Department of Homeland Security, with whom the Agency has been working to identify and monitor the systems in the financial sector that make the easiest hacking targets.

By launching the new directorate, the NSA hopes to strengthen the cyber-shield protecting the country’s national security systems and critical infrastructure from threat actors. 

Topping the freshly launched organization’s list of priorities are defending America’s industrial base and innovating ways to improve the security of the nation’s extensive arsenal of weapons. 

Helping to safeguard the private sector is also something that the new directorate will focus on. Efforts will be made to declassify threat intelligence received by the new organization as speedily as possible so that it can be shared with US businesses. 

NSA director General Paul Nakasone said: “What I’m trying to get to in a space like cyberspace is speed, agility, and unity of effort.”

Leading the new Cybersecurity Directorate is director of cybersecurity Anne Neuberger, who reports directly to General Nakasone. Her previous positions include NSA’s first chief risk officer, deputy director of operations, and lead of NSA’s Russia Small Group.