NSA Launches Largest Overhaul in a Decade, Establishes AI and China Divisions and Revives Elite Hacking Unit

U.S. Defense Department’s Lead Cyber Security Agency
Appoints Mission Directors and Reassembles Hacking Unit

The National Security Agency (NSA), an agency under the Department of Defense overseeing U.S. cyber security, is set to undergo its largest organizational restructuring in a decade, including the establishment of dedicated divisions for artificial intelligence (AI) and China. The NSA is also accelerating efforts to strengthen its cyber warfare capabilities, such as reconstituting an elite hacking organization that was previously disbanded and significantly increasing the related budget.

On September 13 (local time), The Washington Post (WP), citing current and former NSA officials, reported that these reorganization plans were devised by NSA Director Joshua Rudd. The core of the reforms is the creation of five new divisions focused on AI, China, cyber security, combat support or warfighting, and global intelligence. Each division will be led by newly promoted “mission directors,” who will be granted substantial authority equivalent to deputy directors at the NSA. However, it remains unclear whether these five new divisions will replace existing departments or be added on top of the current organizational structure.

National Security Agency (NSA) logo. NSA.

The specific individuals who will serve as mission directors for each division have not yet been determined. Director Rudd has reportedly informed NSA senior officials about the possibility of recruiting external personnel. The WP added, “This uncertainty has left internal staff feeling anxious, and according to former officials, the NSA is currently requesting recently departed leadership-level figures to return to the agency.”

As part of the restructuring, the NSA’s elite hacking division, the Tailored Access Operations (TAO), will also be reinstated. Established in 1997, TAO is one of the most secretive units within the NSA, responsible for infiltrating or occasionally attacking digital targets that are difficult to access globally. After the TAO name was retired in 2016, its members were dispersed across various NSA departments, but Director Rudd has reorganized the division over the past several months. According to the WP, TAO will be allocated a significant budget in the new fiscal year starting next month and is expected to be placed under the newly created global intelligence mission director.

Strengthening the agency’s AI capabilities is also underway. Since taking office in March, Director Rudd has focused on enhancing AI competencies, introducing a desktop tool called “Ask Merry” to support AI-related work and initiating collaboration with private AI research institutes. Even when the Department of Defense issued a ban on the use of Anthropic’s technology, the NSA circumvented the prohibition to adopt and utilize Anthropic’s AI model, Mythos.

This organizational reform is proceeding at a remarkably rapid pace. The soon-to-be-appointed mission directors are required to submit detailed blueprints for the restructured organization to Director Rudd by the end of September. Based on these plans, the reform process will begin in mid-October, with the goal of launching the new divisions in January of next year.

The mission directors who will lead the new divisions must submit concrete organizational redesign proposals to Director Rudd by the end of September. Based on these plans, the NSA aims to begin the reorganization process in mid-October and have all new divisions fully operational by mid-January next year.

This timetable is considerably faster than previous NSA overhauls. For example, the “NSA 21” restructuring, initiated by then-Director Mike Rogers in 2016, allotted two years for preparation to reorganize the agency into six divisions, yet the process remains incomplete even ten years later, according to the WP. As a result, internal concerns about the pace and direction of change have emerged. A former NSA official told the WP, “Director Rudd has acknowledged that he still does not know exactly how to proceed with the reorganization,” and added, “He is likely to make decisions that can be reversed if necessary while moving quickly to implement changes.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.