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Used to work in this field. You're correct: not being able to talk about it is the worst part. This is equally true of successes as well as challenges. I did
by cushychicken 2mo ago
Used to work in this field. You're correct: not being able to talk about it is the worst part.
This is equally true of successes as well as challenges.
I did some cool, very impactful stuff in that job. I will go to jail for a long, long time if I ever go into detail about it.
- amarcheschi 2mo agoWhat can you say, if anything, without going into detail?
- lesuorac 2mo agoEverybody here is all so small minded. The government has spent centuries doing spycraft and has a budget in the billions.
- yndoendo 2mo agoWhen you know you can't kill the message, kill the messenger. This is the tactic used when journalist Gary Webb started reporting on the USA involvement with selling crack to Americans so they could fund Contra insurgents in Nicaragua. They did this so well that other news organizations turned on the journalist. I could easily imagine the USA not wanting to patch holes so they have access to the systems and these experts know this.
- anonymousiam 2mo agoThe US agency that we entrust with evaluating and recommending our encryption standards is the same one (albeit a different branch) that focuses on breaking encryption. There is an obvious conflict of interest with this arrangement. Many examples of deliberate weakening are documented, especially with the "export approved" stuff that we sell to our allies. This problem goes beyond just encryption, and also involves deliberate data leaking (with plausible deniability). So yes, you don't need to imagine it at all -- the NSA works to create and maintain access to "everything everywhere."
- bigyabai 2mo agoIf they worked there recently, they probably grappled with this in some capacity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Typhoon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Typhoon
- cushychicken 2mo agoIt was, on a technical level, the most interesting work I’ve ever done. What people say about the US government being ahead of the commercially available technology curve is certainly true. The work I did absolutely had positive impact on the world. People rush to criticize and write off working in the defense sector, but it can be a very rewarding place to work. There are absolutely problems in that sector - bad management and regulatory capture being primary among them. (Ultimately, those are why I left.) It’s hard to judge accurately from the outside. That’s the nature of classified work: by definition, you can’t know what you’re getting yourself into until you’ve jumped with both feet.
- alexashka 2mo ago[flagged]
- oh_fiddlesticks 2mo agoA bit of an unconstructive, unwarranted jab, if I may say so.
- iwontberude 2mo ago[dead]
- jckahn 2mo agoIs the implication here that we should take the moral high ground and let our adversaries murder us first?
- justsomehnguy 2mo agoIt's quite strange what your adversaries become them after you travel to other side of the planet and kill, maim and destroy them.
- iso1631 2mo agoWell that would be fine if it was defence. But it's now the department of war, led by a person who has attacked two countries this year alone.
- jas- 2mo agoIf you speak to the correct people about illegal activities and unlawful orders you will not.
- jagged-chisel 2mo ago… you might not. Have you noticed the current executive administration in the US?
- onemoresoop 2mo agoYou’d likely get Snowdened in.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 2mo agoI don't see anywhere that OP mentioned illegal activities or unlawful orders. Sounds like they're quite proud of what the accomplished.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- MarkusQ 2mo agoWay to pull a Tokyo Rose; the GP was alluding to "cool" and "impactful" things they had done to keep us all safe from malicious actors and you try to twist it into "illegal activities" and "unlawful orders". Do not think we aren't catching on to this kind of nonsense.
- runtime_terror 2mo agoSo we're to trust an anon supposed ex officer saying they're doing good things there despite all the clear evidence to the contrary?
- vkou 2mo agoIt's possible that they think they are doing good things according to their moral framework. There are hundreds of millions of people with truly insane moral frameworks. It's possible that their particular job was, as far as they know, doing good things according to most moral frameworks. I have strong doubts that everyone who kills people by clicking on them on a computer screen thinks that what they are doing is wholly compatible with their personal moral framework. Presumably, some of those people feel very guilty about what they do.
- grubbs 2mo agoIs there any type of internal support where you're allowed to chat about it?
- halJordan 2mo agoThere are chaplains and in-agency psychologists, both can have classified conversations with you. The problem is that you cannot change the underlying causes of any illness/sickness
- cushychicken 2mo agoIt’s hard to say exactly what the folks in the article are grappling with, not working with them personally. I never got to the point where I was anywhere near personal crisis from my classified work. These folks sound like they were associated with some kind of wet ops or drone programs. Not fun to deal with. I know cleared psychologists are a thing. I never tried to speak with one but I’m told demand is high, and the ones out there are typically very oversubscribed. I may be a bad counter example to this article. I never had to cope with super severe depression or crisis, or conops that would bring me a ton of personal crisis. I just see a commonality in struggling with not being able to talk about it. Work is too big a part of my life to not be able to discuss it freely. That did cost me something, personally. I’m glad it didn’t cost me anything as dear as what it cost the people in the original article.
- ghastmaster 2mo agoIn all of my years messing with computers, I have met very few people who are as fluent with the technology and the terminology. There is virtually no one I know that I can talk to about the things I do. I do not work in IT. I do not know people in IT. I also do not go out of my way to find IT folks. For a while this bothered me a little. On pondering this, I suppose everyone with a hobby has this same lacking. For that matter, anyone with a mind that contains unique thoughts has the the same lacking. A desire for comradery seems pretty universal. That said, not being able to talk about it and not being allowed to talk about it is quite different!
- throwaway-11-1 2mo ago[flagged]
- rozap 2mo agoPlenty of people work at Meta.
- techpression 2mo agoI think most people think the ethical values are far higher in those jobs than most random startup bs just wasting resources. I definitely do, I would rather work in the military than Meta/Amazon/Microsoft/Any online gambling/and loads of other shit companies.
- archagon 2mo agoThou shalt not kill is pretty straightforward.
- throwaway-11-1 2mo agoAre you serious? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Minab_school_attack?wprov=sfti1# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Minab_school_attack?wprov...
- epolanski 2mo ago[flagged]
- constantius 2mo ago[flagged]
- Hilliard_Ohiooo 2mo agoTook me a year to get my secret clearance in the military, I promise you no one gives a s** about anything you say once you're out. It is a fun way to feel self-important though :-) I was a part of the world's largest illegal operation in history and again I promise you no one gives a s**.
- afro88 2mo agoWell go on then...
- breppp 2mo agoSounds like a good tip if someone wants to find themselves in jail
- sitzkrieg 2mo agoeveryone seemed to nonchalantly care because you all got blanket secret clearance in mil. if you had TS/SCI and an interesting SAP you would not be saying this
- cushychicken 2mo agoif you had TS/SCI and an interesting SAP you would not be saying this Facts. Source: me - TS/SCI, several interesting SAPs, contractually bound to not say a word about the details til death.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]