Part time high school jobs.
Mowing lawns.
Working in fast food.
Homework tutoring.
Walking dogs.
Reviewing correspondence from foreign countries as part of the national spying apparatus?
That’s right!
Spying has joined the list of potential summer jobs because The NSA-The National Security
Agency is recruiting teenagers.
Now you won’t be hopping straight into a real life spy movie, but this is still an
incredibly unique and interesting opportunity for those qualified and lucky enough to land
it..
The origins of the NSA stretch back to World War I when the US government created a code
and cipher decryption unit known as the Cipher Bureau.
Various iterations of the organization continued throughout the war and into the late 1920’s
before being shut down.
During World War II, a US cryptographic organization was revived to intercept and decipher the
communications of the Axis powers.
Postwar, all cryptologic activities were centralized under a national organization which ultimately
led to President Harry Truman formally establishing the National Security Agency on October 24,
1952.
The mission of the NSA is international observation, collection, and processing of information
and data for intelligence and counterintelligence purposes.
The agency specializes in the intelligence collection management of cybersecurity and
signals intelligence or the monitoring, interception, and interpretation of radio signals, radar
signals, and telemetry.
People often mix up the NSA with the CIA.
There are several differences between the two agencies.
On the simplest level the NSA is a military intelligence organization funded by the US
Department of Defense.
Its primary duty is to support the troops.
The CIA is a civilian foreign intelligence service agency which focuses mainly on human
intelligence gathering.
The main purpose of the CIA is to provide the President with intelligence.
The NSA tends to lurk behind screens while the CIA runs physical spying operations.
The staff of the NSA is roughly 60% civilian and 40% military.
The size of its workforce is unknown, as the NSA doesn’t reveal staff numbers.
However the agency is believed to have around 40,000 workers.
The NSA’s budget is also undisclosed, although it is considered to be the country's largest
spy agency.
The overall U.S. intelligence budget is currently about $60 billion annually.
The NSA is thought to have the highest number of supercomputers in the world, utilized by
a legion of computer scientists, mathematicians and linguists.
Currently the agency is focused on what the head of the NSA, Army General Paul Nakasone
calls "persistent engagement."
This is the NSA’s tactical strategy of relentless pursuit of and taking opposing action against
cyber enemies, especially in relation to the 2020 US elections.
The agency recently opened the Integrated Cyber Center, at its headquarters, the massive
National Security Agency complex at Fort Meade in Maryland.
In October 2019, the NSA will launch its Cybersecurity Directorate.
This new arm of the organization will unify the NSA’s foreign intelligence and cyber
defense missions.
Its mandate is to prevent and eradicate threats to National Security Systems and the Defense
Industrial Base.
Also this new approach will help the NSA to be better situated to collaborate with key
partners across the US government such as the US Cyber Command, Department of Homeland
Security, and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The new Directorate will also enable the NSA to more effectively share information with
allies across the world so they are better equipped to defend against malicious cyber
activity.
The agency is concerned about four main threats: China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Critical to the long term opposition of these threats and any other adversaries, is the
NSA maintaining a vital workforce full of top talent.
Each year the NSA hires 150 + high school students for different opportunities: a work
study program where students work at least 20 hours a week for the NSA during their senior
year of high school and a Gifted and Talented STEM program where high school graduates with
aptitudes for engineering, science, technology and mathematics work for the agency during
the summer after their senior year and while on break from college.
Also the agency offers college scholarships as well as collaborates with over 200 universities,
funding academic programs and research.
Planting seeds for the future, NSA also supports STEM and foreign language development skills
programs and summer camps for pre k through twelve grade.
The majority of the NSA’s high school interns work at the Fort Meade complex.
While the agency is vague on specific duties, the positions can range from being office
support staff to operating data processing equipment to logistics or language translation.
Depending on duties interns may be granted access to some of the US’s most sensitive
information and secret efforts.
Although all positions are paid, the NSA is also vague on intern salary rates.
Anonymous reviews on job website board point to the NSA as offering benefits and paying
quite well for in demand positions.
To be considered for the programs, applicants go through a competitive and rigorous hiring
application process that can take a year.
Not only are they looking for students with high grades and test scores, you need a clean
record and must not have done drugs for a year.
Applicants undergo psychological screening, a polygraph interview, and obtain a security
clearance.
For your security clearance, you will provide a list of all foreign travel you have ever
undertaken.
Once submitted, your questionnaire will be forwarded to an external federal agency, such
as the FBI.
You may be subject to several interviews and asked for personal references throughout the
process.
Friends, neighbors past employer and other acquaintances are interviewed as part of investigating
an applicant’s background for gaining them security clearance.
Once granted for an internship, the security clearance may be used for future positions
with defense contractors or other government agencies.
The NSA uses a variety of ways to recruit students, including social media, job website
ads and job fairs to recruit students.
Recruiters know that for STEM students they’re competing for talent with Silicon Valley.
They reason that if they can attract students while they’re young and show them that they
can contribute to the United State or make a difference in the world, in the long run
they will choose a career with the NSA over a more glamorous, probably higher paying startup
job.
Currently the NSA is able to retain 85% of former interns and convert them to full-time
employees after college.
The NSA’s recruitment program is not without controversy.
Some worry about allowing teens to access and be responsible for highly classified or
sensitive information and intelligence tactics.
The NSA has struggled with leaks in the past.
Previously the NSA developed various hacking tools which were slowly leaked to public websites
by a hacker group known as Shadow Brokers in the summer of 2016.
These tools could be used to exploit vulnerabilities in firewalls, antivirus software, and Microsoft
products.
Since then, the tools have been downloaded and accessed countless times to wreak havoc.
Not only have foreign military agencies such as the North Koreans and Russian military
intelligence used the tools, but the exploits have now fallen into the hands of hackers
and opportunistic criminals.
In the last few years, cyberattacks have been mounted against smaller companies and city
government services.
In early 2017 a fix was created to limit computer system vulnerabilities.
However, many organizations with limited IT budgets and capabilities haven’t yet implemented
the fix.
Organizations both before and after the patch,have had their systems infiltrated, data modified,
stolen or ransomed causing a breakdown in business or services.
Others are concerned that with the NSA internship program, the government is setting out to
brainwash teens who should be made more aware of the agency's long history of questionable,
boundary stomping and constitutional abuses.
Since the 1960’s, the NSA has mounted several controversial secret operations, such as MINARET
or the clandestine operation set up to monitor the phone communications of government officials
and prominent Americans who criticized the Vietnam War.
In more recent years, the NSA has come under fire for its problematic collecting of phone,
email and other data on ordinary citizens via illegal warrantless NSA surveillance programs
such as those exposed by Edward Snowden in 2013.
The NSA has also been revealed to have been committing abuses against countries allied
with the US such as surveilling several embassies, and tapping the phone calls of EU officials.
In some cases the NSA coerced companies into adding backdoors in their software and even
went so far as to intercept shipments of computer products such as Cisco Systems routers and
install bugs for data collection before the merchandise was shipped to its original destination.
Critics argue that it is important for young people to be made conscious of such government
assaults on freedom before considering a security agency career.
Several other government agencies including the CIA, National Institutes of Health, the
Smithsonian Institution and U.S. Department of State also offer internships for high schoolers.
Are you interested in becoming an NSA intern, why or why not?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video CIA Spy Techniques: The Shoelace Code and
Other Secret Spy Techniques!
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!