The Staggering Power of NSA Systems Administrators -- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Reflections on the Ex-PFC Wintergreens of the national-security state
In Catch-22, there is a character whose constant desire to go AWOL results in a series of demotions. The reader is introduced to him as Ex-PFC Wintergreen, a lowly mail clerk. But it turns out that his job affords him extraordinary access to information. By manipulating its flow, he quietly becomes one of the most influential men in the military, wielding more power than generals. I thought of Ex-PFC Wintergreen almost immediately after the Edward Snowden leaks made headlines, and again when General Keith Alexander, the director of the NSA, revealed one of the ways his agency was responding to them: using automation to cut the number of systems administrators by 90 percent, a reduction so extreme that it's an implicit admission of a serious flaw in current arrangements.
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My Comment: It makes you wonder on how many NSA systems administrators are sympathetic to Russian and Chinese intelligence .... it only takes one.
On a side note .... Glen Greenwald .... who broke the Edward Snowden/NSA leaks .... is promising even more NSA revelations in the weeks to come.
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