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Constitution Protection Office

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File:NBHturul.jpg
The AH logo. The bird is a turul and the shield itself the Arpad stripes of ancient Hungary.

Nemzetbiztonsági Hivatal (NBH) (Office of National Security) was the name of a Hungarian secret service. Its primary responsibilities are defensive: counterintelligence, counter-terrorism, and related proactive measures. The Hivatal also leads investigations against organized crime and deals with (mainly internal) threats against society (such as political extremism).

It was reorganized after the fall of the socialist era in 1989, and it should now follow the modern law-based kind of information gathering and government support. Its previous incarnation has been part of the Ministry of Interior (Department III).

Since 2010 the new service in the area of counterintelligence etc. is Alkotmányvédelmi Hivatal (AH) (Constitution-protection Office), which caused a slight controversy since the logical shorthand ("AVH") would have been the same as the well known, feared communist state police of the 50s, the Államvédelmi Hatóság. The similarity is communicated to be an accidental coincidence by the government.