Records of the Central Intelligence Community

The National Archives has custody of a number of series of National Security Agency (NSA) records, and the record group is growing. New NSA accessions are generally accreted -- or added -- to existing records series, based on the records disposition numbers.

When there is not sufficient volume to justify the creation of a new series, the records are allocated to the General Records series (Entry P 5) until sufficient volume is accumulated and a new series is created. Therefore the General Records series is the most active series in Record Group 457. If you have pulled records from the General Records series before, and wish to review them a second time, please check the updated folder lists available in the Reference Room.

Recent accessions of NSA records include Archival and Historian’s Source Files (Entry P 11), and Cryptanalytic Technical Archival Records (P 9), among others.

Currently, the bulk of records in RG 457 relate to the years leading up to and including the World War II. The majority of records were not created by the NSA/CSS but by predecessor agencies. The records were then maintained and used by the NSA/CSS and transferred by that agency to the National Archives.

RG 457 is an active record group, and processing is ongoing as new records are received. If you have difficulty locating records, please consult a reference archivist.