tomers. Even though it is part of the Defense Department, the NGA
serves the entire intelligence community and provides combat support
to the military. The secretary of defense and the director of national
intelligence (DNI) share the management of the NGA, although the
DCI retains “tasking” authority over national imagery systems and has
a large say over the appointment of the NGAdirector.NATIONAL IMAGERY AND MAPPING AGENCY (NIMA). The
U.S. National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) was estab-
lished 1 October 1996 by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency
Act of 1996. NIMAcentralized imagery intelligence(IMINT) and
mapping requirements by incorporating the National Photographic
Interpretation Center(NPIC), the Central Imagery Office (CIO),
the Defense Mapping Agency (DMA), the Defense Dissemination
Program Office (DDPO), and the imagery capabilities of the Na-
tional Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the Defense Intelligence
Agency (DIA), and the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office
(DARO). As such, it merged imagery, maps, charts, and environ-
mental data to produce geospatial intelligence (GEOINT). NIMA’s
products supported a variety of military, civil, and international
needs. Under the terms of the 2004 Defense Authorization Bill,
NIMA became the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
(NGA) on 24 November 2003. Geospatial intelligence has been em-
ployed for a variety of intelligence and civilian purposes, including
the monitoring and enforcement of peace treaties.NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION CENTER
(NIPC).An interagency center, NIPC was created in 1998 by Presi-
dential Decision Directive (PDD) 63 to serve as a focal point for
U.S. government efforts to warn about and respond to cyber attacks
against the nation’s critical infrastructure. These infrastructures in-
clude telecommunications and information, energy, banking and fi-
nance, transportation, government operations, and emergency ser-
vices. PDD 63 envisaged NIPC as providing threat assessments,
warning, vulnerability and law enforcement investigations, and na-
tional response. Initially, NIPC was located at the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) but was later incorporated into the Department
of Homeland Security(DHS) upon its establishment in 2002.NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION CENTER• 12905-398 (2) Dictionary.qxd 10/20/05 6:27 AM Page 129