national security agency

• National Security Agency

Time to dial up some healthy skepticism

• Edward Snowden

Snowden leak shows the weakness of oversight

• Crime

NSA surveillance sparks privacy debate

As you move through the ordinary activities of your everyday life, you're leaving an electronic trail rich in data about your whereabouts, your interests and your relationships. That's information of keen interest — and not only to marketers. As recent revelations about two National Security Agency surveillance programs show, at least some of those digital details are being collected and analyzed by the government.

• News

David Simon weighs in on NSA surveillance

David Simon, the former Baltimore Sun crime reporter and creator of the television show The Wire, has weighed in reports of data collection efforts by the National Security Agency, asking, what's the fuss?Creator of The Wire describes 1980s data collection by Baltimore police in blog post

• Opinion

Big Brother NSA

Latest evidence of NSA domestic surveillance is frightening

• National Security Agency

NSA surveillance sparks privacy debate

• News

David Simon weighs in on NSA surveillance

• National Security Agency

Trusting Big Brother in the prolonged war on terror

• Politics

Privacy advocates outraged, but lawmakers defend collection of phone records

Obama administration and a bipartisan group of lawmakers defended the program as both legal and necessary.

• Opinion

Obama's surveillance state

The government's power to secretly collect millions of phone records from telecom companies without their customers' knowledge suggests the laws protecting privacy are a lot less robust that most people think

• Politics

Privacy advocates outraged, but lawmakers defend collection of phone records

• Opinion

Obama's surveillance state

• Opinion

Fight cyberattacks, not privacy

Legislation to combat foreign and domestic hackers is necessary, but it need not come with a license for the government to collect personal information

• Arts and Culture

Middle school students can get high school credit for foreign language classes

The members of the Harford County Board of Education approved a measure Monday to allow middle school students to take world language courses for high school credit

• Technology Industry

NSA plans new computing center for cyber threats

A new computing facility at the National Security Agency will help the country better defend against cyber attacks, agency officials and members of Congress said Monday.

• National Security Agency

NSA plans new computing center for cyber threats

• Sports

Amelia McGuirk pilots Moonsox to My Lady's Manor victory Saturday

Under sunny skies, a crowd approaching 10,000 partied and watched the 103rd running of the My Lady's Manor Steeplechase on Saturday in Monkton and saw an electrifying victory in the featured race.

• Sports

A love of riding for amateur steeplechase jockey Connor Hankin

Maryland's steeplechase season reaches three biggest races, keep your eye on Connor Hankins

• Lifestyle and Leisure

Columbia Foodies share epicurean delights

• Baltimore County

Cyber security startups find home at BWTech on UMBC campus

BWTech Research and Technology park at UMBC hosts a Cyber Security business incubator which is now full and preparing to expand

• Unrest

Everyone's life is a story, so write it down for posterity [Senior Circles]

• Education

Teaching the ABCs of literacy in Laurel

Bill Stoner sent up the Greater Laurel Literacy Center in 1987; nearly 26 years later, he and his small team of volunteers are still helping adults in the Laurel area learn to read.

• Opinion

FBI headquarters in Greenbelt benefits all Marylanders

State should unite behind effort to relocate agency from D.C. to Prince George's

• Politics

Virginia, Maryland lawmakers spar over FBI move

Lawmakers from Virginia pressed a House subcommittee on Wednesday to forgo a requirement included in a Senate resolution they said unfairly advantages Maryland as the two states compete to land a possible new FBI headquarters.

• Obituaries

John C. Ford Jr., cryptanalyst during World War II

• Maryland

Laura Neuman bets on herself again, this time as Anne Arundel county executive

She was an underdog in a 16-candidate race for county executive, but county boss Laura Neuman has always been the kind to bet big on herself.

• Maryland

Developers express interest in FBI headquarters

General Services Administration officials said Wednesday they received nearly three dozen responses to a request for ideas for a new FBI headquarters, a potentially lucrative development that Maryland leaders hope to bring to Prince George's County.

• Maryland

As sequestration starts, concern in Howard builds

Howard County business officials still are learning how the federal sequestration will affect the county's economy, but once Congress missed its March 1 deadline for an agreement avoiding the cuts, one local business already was feeling the effects.

• Opinion

Cyber security jobs going begging?

Cyber security jobs going begging?

• Anne Arundel

Md. military bases brace for reductions

Midshipmen at the Naval Academy could spend less time training at sea. Some gates into Fort Meade could be shut down. And routine maintenance at military installations across the state could be delayed, under federal budget cuts set to begin Friday.

• Opinion

Cyber help wanted

Maryland has 19,413 openings for computer security professionals, most of them in Baltimore — let's start training for these jobs

• Business

Sequestration puts Howard business community 'on edge'

With less than a week to go until the federal government's March 1 deadline to reach an agreement avoiding a set of spending cuts known as sequestration, the local business community is in the dark about its potential impact.

• Politics

O'Malley warns of 'job-killing' sequester cuts

O'Malley warns of 'job-killing' sequester cuts

• Business

Help for firms vying for a piece of the federal budget

Local efforts to help government contractors navigate the complex world of federal procurement are looking particularly relevant these days with big budget cuts looming.

• Maryland

Fort Meade commander taking on synthetic marijuana

Commanders at Fort Meade are cracking down on synthetic marijuana, a cheap, widely available and sometimes dangerous designer drug that has been linked to suicides and homicides.

• Addiction

Fort Meade commander taking on synthetic marijuana

• National Security Agency

Report: Baltimore area has thousands of cybersecurity job openings

Baltimore is a hotbed of cybersecurity jobs, with more than 13,000 job postings last October alone, according to a report funded by the Abell Foundation.

• Politics

Senate approves 'fiscal cliff' deal, sends it to House

Hours before a midnight deadline would have ushered in an enormous tax hike on ordinary Americans, the White House reached a tentative deal with Congress on Monday to raise taxes on the wealthiest households while putting off tougher spending decisions for another battle in a couple of months.

• Education

Century High School a Maryland Blue Ribbon School

School that opened in 2001 one of six honored in state

• Politics

Mikulski poised to become Senate committee chair

Behind-the-scenes jostling for committee chairmanships in the U.S. Senate has left Maryland Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski poised to take over the Senate Intelligence Committee — a move experts said Tuesday could bolster the role cyber security plays in the state's economy.

• Politics

Mikulski poised to become Senate committee chair

• Maryland

Maryland ACLU sues Leopold over alleged 'enemies list'

Eleven people and the state ACLU sued Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold Wednesday, contending the county illegally compiled files about citizens on Leopold's alleged "enemies list," then refused to release the information collected.

• Maryland

Search begins for site of new FBI headquarters

The federal government began the process of site selection for a new FBI headquarters Monday. Maryland is competing with Virginia and Washington for the project.

• Colleges and Universities

Highland/Fulton: It's Christmas Bazaar time at St. Francis Catholic Church

• Business

Strong federal ties leave Md. vulnerable to sudden cuts

Looming federal budget cuts make a whole lot of Marylanders nervous because a whole lot of Maryland depends on Uncle Sam for a paycheck — directly or indirectly.

• Tax Credits

Congressional candidate profiles

• Business

A primer on landing one of Fort Meade's jobs

Fort Meade's rapid growth in the last few years has made it the state's largest employer, but getting a foot in the door — or, rather, inside the guarded fence line — can be daunting. Residents crowded into a local high school for tips from Meade experts.

• Technology Industry

Columbia cybersecurity firm gets boost from Silicon Valley

Tenable Network Security Inc. has quietly built a booming business selling network security products and services to the U.S. government and companies around the world. It's profitable and has thousands of clients.

• Cyber Crime

Team of Centennial, Reservoir students place second at Cyber Challenge

A team of students from Reservoir and Centennial high schools took second place last week at the second annual Maryland Cyber Challenge and Competition

• Obituaries

Dr. Alice Heisler Hissey, behavioral pediatrics clinic director

Dr. Alice Heisler Hissey, former medical director of the University of Maryland Medical Center's Behavioral Pediatric Clinic, died Oct. 18 of pancreatic cancer at her Columbia home. She was 75.