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NSA's Top Talent is Leaving Because of Low Pay, Slumping Morale and Unpopular Reorganization (washingtonpost.com)
Ellen Nakashima and Aaron Gregg, reporting for the Washington Post: The National Security Agency is losing its top talent at a worrisome rate as highly skilled personnel, some disillusioned with the spy service's leadership and an unpopular reorganization, take higher-paying, more flexible jobs in the private sector (Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source). Since 2015, the NSA has lost several hundred hackers, engineers and data scientists, according to current and former U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter. The potential impact on national security is significant, they said. Headquartered at Fort Meade in Maryland, the NSA employs a civilian workforce of about 21,000 there and is the largest producer of intelligence among the nation's 17 spy agencies. The people who have left were responsible for collecting and analyzing the intelligence that goes into the president's daily briefing. Their work also included monitoring a broad array of subjects including the Islamic State, Russian and North Korean hackers, and analyzing the intentions of foreign governments, and they were responsible for protecting the classified networks that carry such sensitive information.
Not exactly. It would be good news if they had quit because of conscience problems.
There are roles that should cause people to be shunned. I know that for me if someone said they worked for the CIA or NSA I'd avoid them while making lots of sarcastic remarks and I'd tell others as well. I've done this in the past for other jobs that I consider bad for society, like the guy I essentially called scum for operating a pay day loan place. The NSA doesn't have a leg to stand on in terms of being a force for good. Now if they used their massive powers for good then I could get behind them at least a bit more and they could be upgraded to the category of mixed bag instead of purely evil.