Discovering NSA Code Names Via LinkedIn

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."

Comments

Re:Simple explanation

[Sparticus789]

Simple answer, yes. Complex answer, sometimes the project managers want a hip and cool project name so they try to come up with a generic term for their project that is similar to what the project does. The project name has to go through a CAO (classification advisory officer), of which there are 20-25 at any given time. They are always people in positions that can be named to the public, so any name of an individual on the NSA website is a CAO. Like the Director of the NSA or the division chiefs. The CAO determines whether or not the project name gives away too much information about the details of the project.

In all reality, all of those project code names are probably one specific type of information that just came from different sources. Pinwale is e-mails. So one of them is a database of foreign HF intercepts, another is a database of foreign-bound cell phones, one is a database of every phone call made by political opponents of the administration, etc.

Re:A fleeting moment of rich irony.

[dywolf]

first thing i thought was red herring