[ih] Eyes on the Internet?

[Alex McKenzie]

Brian,
Yes, it was the National Security Agency.  As far as I know they were just gaining experience with the new technology.  In the second quarter of 1973, BBN undertook a study of “techniques for transmitting private data through the ARPA Network” and proposed developing a “Private Line Interface” (PLI) to let “simple-minded” systems use the ARPAnet “in lieu of a point-to-point communication circuit.” The PLI design also allowed use of crypto equipment for classified traffic. [BBN Report 2580, pp 10-13].  I think this was the beginning of NSA involvement with ARPAnet, and the NSA node may have been related to the PLI project.  You could look at http://xbbn.weebly.com/bbn-internet-engineering-timeline.html for other engineering milestones related to the PLI project.  Others on the list may have more specific knowledge of NSA involvement with ARPAnet.
Cheers,Alex


      From: Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter at gmail.com>
 To: internet-history at postel.org 
 Sent: Monday, September 21, 2015 7:52 PM
 Subject: [ih] Eyes on the Internet?
   
I was just touching up my stock talk on the history of the
Internet, and I noticed a node on the 1977 ARPANET map called
"NSA" (a PDP-11) with links to SDAC and NBS.

Does anybody happen to know (and is allowed to write) what
they did with it?

(afaik, the existence of the NSA was made public in ~1975.)

Regards
  Brian Carpenter


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