The Next Wave, NSA's research journal centered on emerging technologies, is for the first time available online to the general public through the agency's website, www.nsa.gov.
The quarterly publication highlights significant technical advancements and research activities within NSA's Research Directorate and beyond. Its print readership has totaled more than 10,000.
"Experts within the Research Directorate have a history of raising the bar with innovative new technology and then sharing it with the world," said Dr. Michael Wertheimer, Director of Research. "This practice supports our mission to strengthen information security while benefiting both commerce and the nation as a whole. Making The Next Wave more widely available is a perfect example of this practice," he continued. "The technologies and topics covered address challenges, like cybersecurity, that affect us all."
The current online issue, "Building a National Program for Cybersecurity Science," is the second of two issues dedicated to the science of cybersecurity. The first, published in March 2012, highlighted contributions from experts in academia and the private sector. The current issue focuses on government, offering a wide variety of perspectives on cyber challenges and solutions alike.
Both support for cybersecurity and the need to understand the science behind it are increasing.
Security challenges now involve more than cryptography and cryptanalysis, and solutions require collaboration. To that end, public and private partnerships continue to form as research findings and technologies are shared across institutional boundaries.
"The Next Wave has inspired a growing audience to think collaboratively," said Kathleen Prewitt, the journal's Managing Editor. "Our past print readership was over 10,000 and climbing. Offering The Next Wave online allows us to efficiently share information to spur future partnerships that could be of great benefit to the NSA mission and beyond."
The Research Directorate creates breakthroughs in mathematics, science, and engineering. These discoveries allow NSA to achieve and sustain intelligence advances against immediate and emerging threats to U.S. national security. As the only "in-house" organization in the Intelligence Community that is dedicated to improving intelligence through science, the directorate provides a consistent advantage over the scientific discoveries of industry, academia, and adversarial nations.
At NSA, preparing for the future is a never-ending endeavor.