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

A fleeting moment of rich irony.

[Picass0]

>> "Hmm... Apparently, NSA employees don't realize that information they post online can be revealed."

I admit to laughing at this.

Re:A fleeting moment of rich irony.

[Bob the Super Hamste]

First thing I thought was pay back is a bitch.

Re:A fleeting moment of rich irony.

[dywolf]

first thing i thought was red herring

Simple explanation

[Sparticus789]

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).

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:Simple explanation

[Mashdar]

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?

Gives me an idea, though

[Anonymous Coward]

I really need a job. So, I figured I could pose as an NSA person. And when a potential employer calls for a reference, they'll just say, "We cannot confirm nor deny that he worked here."

My job description could be ANYTHING. I could make up ANYTHING.

Skilled in intelligence platforms such as: BANANA, MACARONI, METRICS, SAES, SPURIOUS, HEX, SEX, LEXX, PECS.

Programmed in Python, Jython, NSAthon.

Designed and developed a super computer that has broken all records.

Re:Gives me an idea, though

[Dr_Barnowl]

Developed a plaintext recovery attack for SHA-256

Re:Just saying Hi!!

[Sponge Bath]

You know who I am.

On the internet, the NSA knows you're a dog.

Re:Are all of these acronyms?

[SJHillman]

The government retains a crack team of acronymists. They spend days laboring over each acronym making it perfect. Some examples

MANPADS (Man-portable air defense system)
DILDO (Direct Input Limited Duty Officer)
ASSBAG (Airframe Structure Support Boeing Advisory Group)

**I didn't make these up, there are sources for them but that would take more effort than Slashdot is accustomed to. Plus I accidentally closed those tabs already.

But he lacks one skill

[Hentes]

All these skills and he still didn't figure out how to turn off capslock.

Re: Irony as now google is your pal

[Em Adespoton]

Digging a little deeper, if you refactor the contents of those search results, you get a VERY complete picture of what's going on... for example, PINWALE is the code name for Mission Systems, developed for the Military by Northrop Grumman. Most of the people who developed the system appear to be on LinkedIn :)

That's just a taste; anyone good at graph theory and data mining could probably put together quite a dossier of people and projects based on the public info available through LinkedIn/Google.