The U.S. National Security Agency recently unveiled the Cybersecurity Collaboration Center, which is designed to help the agency learn about active hacking campaigns by U.S. companies that are constantly targeted by hacking groups.
The development follows a series of high-profile hacking attacks last year, including a massive cyberattack on numerous federal agencies and another that crippled a key U.S. gas pipeline.
U.S. officials have complained of a lack of visibility of the cyber threat due to legal restrictions that prevent the NSA and other federal spy agencies from collecting data on domestic computer networks.
Foreign hackers are aware of the controls and therefore often stage attacks on servers in the U.S.
The center is unique in the history of the NSA because it is located off-campus, beyond the fence line of the spy agency’s headquarters, and is largely a non-classified space.
There is no security checkpoint in front of the entrance and office workers can bring their personal devices into the building, a big difference from NSA headquarters.
Industry partners of the office, which opened in January, include defense contractors, cloud computing companies, cybersecurity companies and internet service providers.
A virtual chat room connects NSA employees and industry partners at the center with analysts on the main campus, who can share advice based on the NSA’s collection of foreign intelligence.
For more information, read the original story in Reuters.