February 20, 2014 9:15AM 

# It’s Time to Break up the NSA 

By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) 

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… [says security guru Bruce Schneier](http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/20/opinion/schneier-nsa-too-big/index.html) on CNN​.com.

His brief, readable piece articulates the three distinct — and conflicting — missions the NSA now has, and how they should be handled. It’s no hit piece: Schneier calls NSA’s Tailored Access Operations group “the best of the NSA and … exactly what we want it to do.”

The generals who have built NSA into a fiefdom will fight tooth and nail against true reforms like these, of course, but they’re the kind of reforms we need. The most prominent measures under discussion are mere nibbles around the edges of the problem, [or worse](https://www.cato.org/blog/data-retention-mandate-no).

##### Related Tags 

[Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy) 

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