VISUALIZATION
Electrical Power Shutdown Could Render the NSA 'Brain-dead'
Last week, Baltimore Sun reported that The National Security Agency (NSA) is running out of juice. The demand for electricity to operate its expanding systems has left the agency at the limit of exceeding its power supply, according to intelligence officials. They anticipated the problem nearly ten years ago as they looked ahead at the technology needs of the agency, but it was never made a priority, and now the agency's ability to keep its operations going is threatened. The NSA is already unable to install two new multimillion-dollar supercomputers, for fear of collapsing the electrical infrastructure. At least, the problem could produce disruptions leading to outages and power surges at the Fort Meade headquarters, hampering the work of intelligence analysts and damaging equipment. It could force a virtual shutdown of the agency, paralyzing the intelligence operation, erasing crucial intelligence data and causing irreparable damage to computer systems -- all detrimental to the fight against terrorism.
Estimates on the time the agency has to stave off such an overload vary from just two months to less than two years. NSA officials 'claim they will not be able to operate more than a month or two longer unless something is done,' said a former senior NSA official familiar with the problem, who spoke to the Baltimore Sun on condition of anonymity. Agency leaders are scrambling for stopgap measures to buy time while they develop a sustainable plan. Limitations of the electrical infrastructure in the main NSA complex and the substation serving the agency. 'If there's a major power failure out there, any backup systems would be inadequate to power the whole facility,' said Michael Jacobs, who headed the NSA's information assurance division until 2002. 'It's obviously worrisome, particularly on days like today,' he said in an interview during last week's barrage of triple-digit temperatures. William Nolte, a former NSA executive who spent decades with the agency, said power disruptions would severely hamper the agency. 'You've got an awfully big computer plant and a lot of precision equipment, and I don't think they would handle power surges and the like really well,' he said. 'Even re-calibrating equipment would be really time consuming -- with lost opportunities and lost up-time.' To begin to alleviate pressure on the electrical grid, the NSA is considering buying additional generators and shutting down so-called 'legacy' computer systems that are decades old and not considered crucial to the agency's operations, said three current and former government officials familiar with the situation. 'It's a temporary fix,' one former senior NSA official said. On Wednesday, the same day that The Sun inquired about the power issue with the NSA's public affairs office, the agency sent word to Capitol Hill about its energy conservation efforts. The computer systems supporting these programs demand far more wattage per square foot than their predecessors and still more energy to cool them. 'It fits into a long, long pattern of crisis-of-the-day management as opposed to investing in the future,' said one former government official familiar with the NSA's electricity shortfall. Upgrades delayed Even as the NSA's budget has ballooned after 9/11, the agency has put off basic utility upgrades such as a $4 million computer system to manage the allocation of power at the NSA -- a sliver of the NSA's estimated $8 billion budget. Neglect of infrastructure at the NSA has been a chronic problem, often fraught with bureaucratic politics, former agency officials said. Fort Meade is not the only NSA outpost facing limitations on its ability to upgrade electrical infrastructure. Listening posts around the world, such as Menwith Hill in Britain and Bad Aibling in Germany, are under the weather. More information on the story can be found at: baltimoresun.com. - Siobhan Gorman & reporter Paul Adams contributed to this article.
Estimates on the time the agency has to stave off such an overload vary from just two months to less than two years. NSA officials 'claim they will not be able to operate more than a month or two longer unless something is done,' said a former senior NSA official familiar with the problem, who spoke to the Baltimore Sun on condition of anonymity. Agency leaders are scrambling for stopgap measures to buy time while they develop a sustainable plan. Limitations of the electrical infrastructure in the main NSA complex and the substation serving the agency. 'If there's a major power failure out there, any backup systems would be inadequate to power the whole facility,' said Michael Jacobs, who headed the NSA's information assurance division until 2002. 'It's obviously worrisome, particularly on days like today,' he said in an interview during last week's barrage of triple-digit temperatures. William Nolte, a former NSA executive who spent decades with the agency, said power disruptions would severely hamper the agency. 'You've got an awfully big computer plant and a lot of precision equipment, and I don't think they would handle power surges and the like really well,' he said. 'Even re-calibrating equipment would be really time consuming -- with lost opportunities and lost up-time.' To begin to alleviate pressure on the electrical grid, the NSA is considering buying additional generators and shutting down so-called 'legacy' computer systems that are decades old and not considered crucial to the agency's operations, said three current and former government officials familiar with the situation. 'It's a temporary fix,' one former senior NSA official said. On Wednesday, the same day that The Sun inquired about the power issue with the NSA's public affairs office, the agency sent word to Capitol Hill about its energy conservation efforts. The computer systems supporting these programs demand far more wattage per square foot than their predecessors and still more energy to cool them. 'It fits into a long, long pattern of crisis-of-the-day management as opposed to investing in the future,' said one former government official familiar with the NSA's electricity shortfall. Upgrades delayed Even as the NSA's budget has ballooned after 9/11, the agency has put off basic utility upgrades such as a $4 million computer system to manage the allocation of power at the NSA -- a sliver of the NSA's estimated $8 billion budget. Neglect of infrastructure at the NSA has been a chronic problem, often fraught with bureaucratic politics, former agency officials said. Fort Meade is not the only NSA outpost facing limitations on its ability to upgrade electrical infrastructure. Listening posts around the world, such as Menwith Hill in Britain and Bad Aibling in Germany, are under the weather. More information on the story can be found at: baltimoresun.com. - Siobhan Gorman & reporter Paul Adams contributed to this article. 
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