[3113] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: NSA Losing Crypto Experts
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rick Smith)
Wed Jul 29 19:24:16 1998
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 18:15:51 -0500
To: nelson@media.mit.edu (Nelson Minar), cryptography@c2.net
From: Rick Smith <rick_smith@securecomputing.com>
In-Reply-To: <199807292149.RAA19267@pinotnoir.media.mit.edu>
Another reason I've heard for the flight from NSA is that they've been
going through an equalization of opportunity thing in which advancement for
people who aren't canonical white males is given unconditional priority. So
if you're a white male it's been almost impossible to get promotions. I
know some white males who went off to Price Waterhouse or other big name
accounting/consulting houses largely because of this. The CIA was subjected
to something similar a few years earlier.
Secret organizations seem to naturally use their cloak of secrecy to hide
internal problems and bad behavior as well as whatever is necessarily
secret about their work. I've heard ugly stories about sexual harassment in
such agencies, never mind inequities in promotion. So the bad stuff
accumulates until it spills out, secrecy or no. There's undoubtedly a
lesson here somewhere.
Rick.
smith@securecomputing.com
