The other part of the NSA mandate is to help protect US secrets (commercial and military). Which is one reason why many were surprised when it seemed they&#x27;d thrown a wrench in the works wrt NIST&#x2F;curve crypto -- if they&#x27;d tricked the US military and commercial interests to use a flawed curve, they&#x27;d undermined their own mandate.<p>As for &quot;Allied Countries&quot;... yeah, sure the NSA would probably be within its charter if it let China take over Britain (except of course, that that&#x27;d harm US interests too).