Episode 131: Jeremy Duffy on Working For The National Security Agency

The existence of the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States was highly classified for over twenty years until the Senate’s Church Committee investigation in 1975. Prior to that, the long-running joke was that the initials NSA stood for ‘No Such Agency’.Since 1975, the NSA has been at the centre of major scandals alleging violations of the Fourth Amendment and breaches of its ‘outward-facing’ role which is meant to limit its surveillance to non-US citizens and foreign countries.The Bush administration’s ‘warrantless wiretapping’ programme was believed to be the most egregious example of intrusion until “the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA’s history” in 2013, when Edward Snowden released documents and information to Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald in a Hong Kong hotel room, bringing the sheer scope and depth of the NSA’s spying into the public domain.Jeremy Duffy worked at the NSA for sixteen years, where he taught Operations Security and was an adjunct faculty member at the National Cryptologic School. He witnessed first-hand the behaviour of the agency when the scandals broke, and often protested against what he saw as the mistreatment of employees and rampant institutional dishonesty. Since leaving the NSA, Jeremy works as a consultant on workplace communication and organisational improvement.He is the author of Are You Listening? Lessons in Waste, Abuse, and Mismanagement from the Agency That Doesn’t Listen, and blogs at thegeekprofessor.com, where you can join his mailing list to receive a free 44-page mini-book about his time at the NSA.In our conversation, Jeremy describes the hostile environment at the NSA, discusses his experiences of the atmosphere during the scandals, and shares very handy information on what he calls LifeSec, which is the use of Operations Security measures in daily life, to keep your data safe.Speaking with him was eye-opening, worrying, and fascinating. I hope you feel the same.1984.today1984today.substack.comX: @1984TodayPod This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1984today.substack.com