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Discovering NSA Code Names Via LinkedIn

Posted by timothy on from the knew-linked-in-had-to-be-good-for-something dept.

Okian Warrior writes with this news as reported by TechDirt: "The Washington Post revealed some of the code names for various NSA surveillance programs, including NUCLEON, MARINA and MAINWAY. Chris Soghoian has pointed out that a quick LinkedIn search for profiles with codenames like MARINA and NUCLEON happens to turn up profiles like this one which appear to reveal more codenames: 'Skilled in the use of several Intelligence tools and resources: ANCHORY, AMHS, NUCLEON, TRAFFICTHIEF, ARCMAP, SIGNAV, COASTLINE, DISHFIRE, FASTSCOPE, OCTAVE/CONTRAOCTAVE, PINWALE, UTT, WEBCANDID, MICHIGAN, PLUS, ASSOCIATION, MAINWAY, FASCIA, OCTSKYWARD, INTELINK, METRICS, BANYAN, MARINA.' TRAFFICTHIEF, eh? WEBCANDID? Hmm... Apparently, NSA employees don't realize that information they post online can be revealed."

2 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Simple explanation by Sparticus789 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Project code names are not classified, ever. Every project has a unclassified code name like any of the above which can be used for things like budgeting and frankly, resumes. A guy I know tried to get "FLUFFY BUNNY" approved as a code name, but they denied it. The easy way to tell, is that unclassified code names are single words chosen by a random computer word generator, and the classified code names are always 2 words, chosen again by a random computer word generator.

    While this may be interesting, the reality of the Fort Meade area is that any job in intelligence, analysis, or IT with a location of Fort Meade or Annapolis Junction, MD is a NSA job. Some of them even post on Craigslist and one time, I had a Facebook add pop up that said "Want an NSA Clearance?" (not a typo, the company messed up their grammar).

    --
    sudo make me a sandwich
    1. Re:Simple explanation by Mashdar · · Score: 5, Informative

      In English, a/an are selected phonetically and are otherwise identical. "An" does not imply plurality (in fact it implies singularity).

      Substituting "NSA" for "security" in your examples does make a difference, because "NSA" begins with a phonetic vowel sound, whereas "security" begins with a phonetic consonant.

      Articles in English are selected phonetically, not typographically, and thus "an NSA" is correct, whereas "a NSA" is not. This can be confusing to look at, but who ever said English was easy?