Secrecy of NSA Affiliation
At 5:55 PM 1/25/96, Rich Salz wrote:
Up until recently (18-30 months ago) NSA employees were only allowed to identify themselves as employees of DoD. It was common knowledge, that unspecific references to Fort Meade meant NSA; and if you saw a P.O. from Procurement Office, Fort Meade, it meant the NSA was buying it.
When I attended Crypto '88, nearly 8 years ago, at least several of the NSA attendees had "National Security Agency" on their name badges. It may be that run-of-the-mill employees still maintain the fiction for public consumption that they are DOD employees, but such was not the case in 1988 at "Crypto." (Recall the "NSA Employees Manual" which 2600 liberated, and which Grady Ward then redistributed. It had some tips, as I recall, on what employees should tell the curious.) When I visited the D.C. area in early '91 or '92 (I forget which year it was), I stopped by Fort Meade to see the place. The sign out front prominently said "National Security Agency," complete with the NSA seal (an eagle lifting a hacker up in its talons). Also, much other evidence points to the NSA having "gone public" much farther back in time than 18-30 months ago. Former DIRNSAs on the MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour were always introduced as former directors of the NSA. As early as the mid-80s, as I recollect. I think Bamford's book pretty much outed the name, though it was widely known before that, of course. (I attended my freshman year of high school in Langley, VA. Through the woods on one side of the school was CIA headquarters. At that time, 1967, it was still only labelled as something like "Department of Transportation Road Testing Facility." Everyone knew what it really was, of course. Rick Smith, on this list, was a classmate of mine and can attest to this. The CIA "went public" in the early 70s, the NSA in the early 80s, the NRO in the early 90s...I sense a pattern. This means the ultra-secret ERO (Extraterrestrial Research Organization) will be outed in the opening years of the next decade.) --Tim May Boycott espionage-enabled software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
Up until recently (18-30 months ago) NSA employees were only allowed to identify themselves as employees of DoD. It was common knowledge, that unspecific references to Fort Meade meant NSA; and if you saw a P.O. from Procurement Office, Fort Meade, it meant the NSA was buying it.
Nothing has really changed. During orientation, you are told to keep your NSA affiliation low key. But you are not ordered to. This was part of the No Such Agency stuff, trying not to draw attention to yourself or the Agency, and to avoid questions from the curious. Perhaps the most important reason for keeping it low key though, was to preserve your career options. But for disciplines such as crypto, the choices are quite limited so broadcasting you are NSA does not matter much.
Timothy C. May said:
At 5:55 PM 1/25/96, Rich Salz wrote:
Up until recently (18-30 months ago) NSA employees were only allowed to identify themselves as employees of DoD. It was common knowledge, that unspecific references to Fort Meade meant NSA; and if you saw a P.O. from Procurement Office, Fort Meade, it meant the NSA was buying it.
When I attended Crypto '88, nearly 8 years ago, at least several of the NSA attendees had "National Security Agency" on their name badges. It may be that run-of-the-mill employees still maintain the fiction for public consumption that they are DOD employees, but such was not the case in 1988 at "Crypto."
At the RSA conference last week, there were approximately 10 people from the NSA. Only 2 of those were registered as DOD, the rest were NSA. I mentioned this at lunch to a guy from the NSA, and he said that only oldtimers do the DOD identification anymore. -- Kevin L. Prigge |"Have you ever gotten tired of hearing those UofM Central Computing | ridiculous AT&T commercials claiming credit email: klp@tc.umn.edu | for things that don't even exist yet? 010010011101011001100010| You will." -Emmanuel Goldstein
Kevin L Prigge writes:
Timothy C. May said:
When I attended Crypto '88, nearly 8 years ago, at least several of the NSA attendees had "National Security Agency" on their name badges. It may be that run-of-the-mill employees still maintain the fiction for public consumption that they are DOD employees, but such was not the case in 1988 at "Crypto."
This sounds about right. When I was an NSA employee ('83), our introductory briefing included the suggestion (I don't recall it being phrased as a command command) that we identify ourselves as DoD. It was suggested that this might lessen our visibility as espionage targets. At the time, the brass would likely have been identified as NSA, as were the lesser brass in the National Computer Security Center, but regular employees weren't.
At the RSA conference last week, there were approximately 10 people from the NSA. Only 2 of those were registered as DOD, the rest were NSA. I mentioned this at lunch to a guy from the NSA, and he said that only oldtimers do the DOD identification anymore.
Yikes. Sometimes age creeps up on you when you aren't looking. I guess I'd be an "oldtimer" if I were still working there? An "oldtimer" at thirty-three... hmm.
This sounds about right. When I was an NSA employee ('83), our introductory briefing included the suggestion (I don't recall it being phrased as a command command) that we identify ourselves as DoD. It was suggested that this might lessen our visibility as espionage targets.
You can read the NSA Employees Manual at http://nyx10.cs.du.edu:8001/~eagle -- According to John Perry Barlow: *What is EFF?* "Jeff Davis is a truly gifted trouble-maker." *email <info@eff.org>* *** O U T L A W S On The E L E C T R O N I C F R O N T I E R **** US Out Of Cyberspace!!! Join EFF Today! *email <membership@eff.org>*
participants (5)
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Jeff Davis -
Kevin L Prigge -
Mike Tighe -
Scott Brickner -
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