Feed the Beast
Another bit of frivolity from my old NSA Blog, the story is from the early 1980's. I am assuming that the statute of limitations on any wrongdoing is long past.
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Feed the Beast
Just a snippet from my distant past. The general theme is about the creative things we do to survive and occasionally thrive in a large bureaucratic system.
I recently told someone that “in the early days” (very early 80's), we had to be creative in order to acquire “Personal Computers” and accessories for the office, which were apparently considered frivolous or too “fun” by people in our management chain.
So to buy an “Apple II Joystick” - after the first attempt was rejected - we filled out a Purchase Request for something like a “multi-axis analog input potentiometer” (with the correct Apple Part # for a game joystick). Yes, it was a Mission Essential Requirement (well, sort of - I was developing animated graphics for a demonstration to be presented at NSA Family Day). As I recall, I ordered 2 of them, but many weeks later an entire box full of them arrived. (Oops. Maybe the written justification for them was too good?) My then-Branch Chief Bob M., in a recently recorded interview with the NSA IAD (Information Assurance Directorate) Historian, credited me with the deception, but I remembered it as his idea. Or maybe I was just the fall guy in case we got caught.
Anyone else have a tale of, uh, creative ways to get the system to let you to do the right thing? That you can share without repercussions?
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4 年A little creative obfuscation goes a long way. ??
Senior Analyst - Cyber Threat Intelligence, Counterintelligence, Geopolitics, Political Risk and Strategy
4 年Thanks for sharing...I could not stop laughing...but since you ask....yes but it's about as far from technology as you can get. One of my early assignments as an Army Intel Officer was running a POW/MIA Search and Recovery Team in Southeast Asia during the early/mid 90s. During one mission to Laos, we were working with a Montagnard tribe to find an aircraft crash site. Long story short, they would not continue w/o sacrificing a water buffalo to appease the spirits as working at the site upset the grave (they are animistic). We had to fly to a nearby village in an MI-17 get a water buffalo (try loading a live one in the back for the flight, he almost caused a crash) and return. At mission end, I filled out a voucher for the cost of the water buffalo, listing "sacrifice to the spirits" or something like that as the justification. Upon return to Hawaii, Finance quickly sent it back. Luckily, the Commanding General heard what had happened, pulled me aside, and directed me to "rewrite and resubmit" the voucher with more obtuse verbiage, he signed it and made sure it went through. I still have the returned voucher stuffed away somewhere.
Agile Master, AI/ML/ZTA Public Private Partnership
4 年????????????
Board Member and Cybersecurity/Technology Executive
4 年Not sure I can share without some reassurance on that statute of limitations. ??