Ann Caracristi, Who Cracked Codes, and the Glass Ceiling At NSA, Dies At 94 (washingtonpost.com)

An anonymous reader writes with this story at The Washington Post about the life and death of Ann Caracristi. From the article: "Ann Caracristi, who became one of the highest ranking and most honored women at the code breaking National Security Agency after a career extending from World War II through much of the Cold War, died Jan. 10 at her home in Washington. She was 94. ... Ms. Caracristi formally retired from her intelligence career in 1982, after becoming the sixth deputy director of the NSA . . . She was the first woman to serve as deputy director. One of her strengths was reconstructing enemy code books, said Liza Mundy, a former Washington Post staff writer who is working on a book about U.S. female code breakers during the war. Admired for her early accomplishments as a young woman in wartime Washington, Ms. Caracristi was credited in her later career with providing leadership for new generations of code breakers and for her efforts to bring computers and technology to bear on the work. ... One of her jobs at the NSA was as chief from 1959 to 1980 of branches devoted to research and operations. Her honors there included the Defense Department's Distinguished Civilian Service Award and the National Security Medal, among other top federal honors. After retiring, she began serving on a variety of prominent scientific, defense and intelligence advisory boards and committees."

Comments

Looks like the NSA is trying to save face

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear NSA,

We will always hate you, no matter how many articles you write about women, Snowden, or "saving the world ". Fuck you.

Sincerely, We The People

Re: Looks like the NSA is trying to save face

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear "Native Americans",

Might makes right.

And no, you weren't all living peacefully together, singing kum-bay-yah, before the white man came. You were killing each other before deciding to oppose or join sides with the next strongest tribe in town... who happened to come on ships.

Now enjoy your casinos and stfu.

Re:Looks like the NSA is trying to save face

[Gr8Apes]

There's a real problem here. For much of the Cold War, the NSA did its job, and it did it well: spying on the actual enemies of the US while helping make sure that the communications of the US and its allies were secure. They helped make the world safe for democracy. Unfortunately, the work gets very little publicity

It got lots of good will prior to the 80s, the NSA was the worst kept secret ever in that they existed and what they did.

and it is also very hard to forgive them for things they've done since 9/11. Essentially,they've blown most of their hard-earned good will. It will probably take decades before it is reestablished.

It hasn't been since just 9/11. The easiest way to tell would be to see when they shunted into AT&Ts main telecom hubs.

Re: Looks like the NSA is trying to save face

[KGIII]

Unlike you, I'm assuming, I actually *am* a Native. I am a tribal member, Micmac if you must know, and am reasonably active in keeping up with the politics even though I do not participate.

That said, there are no white people alive today who were responsible. Some of us got off pretty light, compared to other colonizations but that's not really saying much. I don't normally discuss much of my heritage here (though I've brought it up in the past) because of stupid people - like those who can't spell pristine and feel like they have my permission to speak for me.

Scalping occurred long before the white man rode in on his ship. So did lots of other bad things. They'll happen long into the future because we are humans. I guess, I do have one complaint. If they could uphold just half of those treaties they signed, that'd be a good thing. I mean they, the government, not they any one color.

When brains work for the wrong boss ...

[Taco Cowboy]

Ms. Caracristi was a real brainer

I had opportunity of meeting her decades ago and came away very impressed

But ... like so many other brains, she worked for the wrong boss

No, it is not a sin to break codes - the only thing is that NSA has more interests in playing the role of a big brother sidekick than actually protecting our country

RIP, Ms. Caracristi !

Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[Anonymous Coward]

Glass ceiling is a term that only originates from the late 1970s.

I suppose, like the supposed pay gap myth, it had more to do with women's lifestyle choices and propensity to stick their nose to the grind wheel rather than actual barriers of entry.

Madam Curie and Florence Nightingale showed women leaders can make it far earlier than that. I guess what it's all about then, is not to try to get equality, but like how it's been demonstrated over and over again that not enough women simply enroll in CS when free too (or even when incentivized).... to cheerlead them onto a certain path whether they really want to or not.

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[kaur]

... since she uses 80% or more of her vacation time that she won't be able to handle the job.

In normal societies, using your vacation is more or less an OBLIGATION.
I'd guess that in Europe, even the intelligence agencies ensure that their employees do take out their vacation.

It is also used as a measure against internal fraud. It is difficult to break rules and hide the consequences if you MUST be away from work (and hand over your duties) every year.

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[LaurenCates]

"She was told for the last five years a promotion is hers upon retirement of a guy."

Not that I'm necessarily willing to discount sexism here, since I don't know who your sister works for, but this is often how it works whether you're male or female.

Unless your sister is stellar and could create her own position to which she could be promoted, most companies don't want more managers just for the sake of having them because of practical considerations rather than spend money on salary because it looks good on paper that they hired a woman to be a manager.

"His opinion of her went down when she had kids. That is the glass ceiling."

Went down, or found her to be less productive overall because she had family obligations to meet?

I find it strange that business is where we draw the line at distracted productivity.

Let's say I was a competitive weightlifter, and decided to take a year off to have a kid. And when I came back a year later, I couldn't hit the bench for five hours a day like I used to because I was fulfilling the necessary task of taking care of said kid.

Do you think if I showed up at a competition and took 12th place, the judges would feel it necessary to give me a handicap because having a kid kept me from grinding the way other competitors without kids do, and fast-track me into the top 5?

Again, I don't know your sister's situation. But these "all-too-familiar" stories that squarely fit that confirmation bias hole are just too vague for me to nod my head and say "yep, that's sexism."

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[LaurenCates]

Maybe you should read the GP's post again.

The story is so vague, so missing in detail, that there are SO many variables unaccounted for. And it seems that the GP IS saying that his sister's job IS being unfair: she hasn't been promoted because the only reason she's not being promoted is because she has to wait for someone else to vacate a job she CAN be promoted to. And as I said before: so what? I'm sure a number of men on this board (Government employees especially) have been in the same Shakespearian type of situation: someone has to die before someone else can ascend.

In fact, I've worked for a company whose promotion structure is more or less: "unless we can justify your promotion, we won't promote you". Well, then, the gap in the story is either the sister was sitting around waiting for a promotion that may or may not happen, or she's not some rock star performer that the company is willing to give her a promotion for a position that doesn't exist and has no given reason to exist.

Maybe it IS sexism that she hasn't been promoted elsewhere. Or maybe it isn't. But it doesn't seem to me from context that the GP thinks it's for any reason other than sexism. Because glass ceiling.

And yes, while I did see the part about use of vacation time, it's not nearly enough to corroborate with the rest of the information available to me, other than the fact that context of the post dictates sexism. Well...so what if that guy does use his vacation time? She may get done in 30 hours what three people do in 40, but he might get done what 5 people do in 20. Or maybe he has a friend in management that lets him get away with it. Who knows? I don't, but I'm not going to jump to sexism because the "victim" of the injustice in the scenario is female.

I'm not saying there shouldn't be a reasonable expectation for people doing their jobs once they have kids, but we're not all top performers. Most people, once they settle into family life, rightly, want to be there for their kids. But we all only have 24 hours in a day. And that means no matter how much work you might take home, the time you spend with your kids is not time you spend keeping spun up on the latest and greatest. In any fast-moving industry, perception that you're spending your time assimilating information and/or networking to create connections that facilitate moneymaking prospects will help you advance your career is kind of important, and YOU can "like it or not".

If I ever had kids, I'd happily accept that spending time with them probably means that there will be time in a day that I won't be doing work that someone else will. I would also happily accept that limits my advancement in a career. People need to stop getting so defensive about that.

Re:A true patriot, when that used to mean somethin

[AHuxley]

Yes moved from the Army's Signal Intelligence Service under William F. Friedman the US Army's best cryptologist.
William F. Friedman really wanted to work with the UK in early 1940 but was blocked by the then powerful US Navy that was duplicating US decoding efforts and did not want to share with the US army.
William Friedman was then focused on diplomatic encryption systems eg Japan.
By 1946 the post war agreements over sharing and 5 eye got a lot of attention, a new way to collect all due to new sites long term.
A later fear for the NSA was that the emerging EU would have a lot of complex national encryption systems that would lock out the NSA and US interests. US and NATO pressure ensured the NSA could always backdoor all emerging crypto products the EU was offered. The US would ensure Western Europe would always revert to plain text on any system ever used or allowed to be used.
Ann Caracristi moved from Japanese to Russian military codes, got to the "supergrade" civilian equivalent and then moved to A Group, ie Soviet mil codes.
Russia knew its was totally open to US and UK collection but had so much material to move one time pads could not keep up.
So Russia had to use machine efforts just to ensure speed and the ability to send ever more material. The network was understood to be weak and the US, UK collected all into the 1960's.
The Rainfall results followed into the 1970's getting bulk Soviet material.
Collect it all was always the mission since before WW2 for the US and UK just under different groups and funding.

Re: Is she the same woman...

[PopeRatzo]

Every so often, I browse Slashdot comments at 0, just so I can see what the AC's are going on about.

It's sort of like looking under the refrigerator. Momentary disgust then getting up and forgetting I ever saw that. Life is too short.