NSA Found Efficiencies in Teleworking Environment, Official Says

The National Security Agency has discovered new efficiencies in its employees' efforts to practice social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, according to an agency official.

Greg Smithberger, head of NSA's capabilities directorate and a past Potomac Officers Club event speaker, said the agency's employees can save time when they do not have to move elsewhere to attend a meeting, C4ISRNET reported Friday.  

“We had a culture of face-to-face meetings, and we’ve learned that we can be a lot more effective and efficient, you know, operating virtually even in our classified environment and then the unclassified things and the telework that opens up,” Smithberger said.

According to him, NSA currently has a cross-agency team sifting through the NSA's mission areas and identifying ones that can be accomplished through telework. 

Smitherger said that telework was "rarely done" before the coronavirus pandemic, adding that it will still be limited to unclassified work even in the future.

The NSA relies on the Intelligence Community GovCloud environment for its cloud computing requirements. Agency users will not be allowed to access IC-GovCloud from home, Smithberger said. 

He said NSA's new way of conducting business has opened up new opportunities for industry to work with the agency. In the past, it was difficult for the private sector to support NSA's mission because of the need to transfer talent across the country, he added. 

Smithberger said the current environment is also a chance for the NSA to explore what more it can accomplish in a less protected environment.

He added that he wants the agency “to work with some corporate partners who in some cases simply don’t have access to a [sensitive compartmented information facility], but are fully clearing people.”