The National Security Agency (NSA) on Thursday confirmed the existence of a program known as "Perfect Citizen," but denied assertions that it is a secret monitoring plan that will deploy sensors to detect attempted cyber attacks on private and government computer systems.

The Wall Street Journal this week published an article that said NSA was working with Raytheon on a system that will "rely on a set of sensors deployed in computer networks for critical infrastructure that would be triggered by unusual activity suggesting an impending cyber attack." The Journal also quoted an internal Raytheon e-mail that said, "Perfect Citizen is Big Brother."

NSA spokeswoman Judith Emmel said that the article was an "inaccurate portrayal" of the NSA's work.

"Because of the high sensitivity surrounding what we do to defend our nation, it is inappropriate to confirm or deny all of the specific allegations made in the article," but the agency did point to several points that it felt were inaccurate, including that Perfect Citizen will include computer monitoring.

"Perfect Citizen is purely a vulnerabilities-assessment and capabilities-development contract," Emmel wrote. "This is a research and engineering effort. There is no monitoring activity involved, and no sensors are employed in this endeavor."

"Specifically, it does not involve the monitoring of communications or the placement of sensors on utility company systems," she stressed.

Perfect Citizen will instead provide NSA with "technical solutions" that will help the agency better understand threats to national security networks, though NSA did not elaborate on how it would gather these solutions.

"Any suggestions that there are illegal or invasive domestic activities associated with this contracted effort are simply not true," Emmel concluded. "We strictly adhere to both the spirit and the letter of U.S. laws and regulations."