1. National Security Agency – NSA
Country: United States of America
On top of the list of the best intelligence agencies in the world is the National Security Agency was founded in 1952, with the mission to intercept and analyze signal intelligence (SIGINT). As the technology progressed, the NSA became more and more powerful, becoming one of the biggest intelligence agencies in the United States and the world, both in terms of the number of employees and budget size. Its sheer size, technology, and budget are almost guaranteed to secure it the title of the best intelligence agency in the world in 2017. With the internet and almost free reign given in the aftermath of the 9/11, the NSA is probably the biggest SIGINT agency in the world. It gathers, stores, and analyzes terabytes of data, consisting of location data, intercepted phone calls, emails, even Facebook posts. The agency’s blanket mass surveillance operations have caused a major concern in the United States, as well as among the US foreign allies, who have often found themselves on the wrong side of the NSA’s microphone.
