Editing National Security Agency (section)

== Employees ==
The number of NSA employees is officially classified<ref name="Introv">{{Cite web |last=Tuutti |first=Camille |date=2012-04-16 |title=Introverted? Then the NSA wants you. |url=http://fcw.com/blogs/circuit/2012/04/fedsmc-chris-inglis-federal-workforce.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201106044444/https://fcw.com/blogs/circuit/2012/04/fedsmc-chris-inglis-federal-workforce.aspx |archive-date=2020-11-06 |access-date=2013-07-01 |website=[[Florida Championship Wrestling]]}}</ref> but there are several sources providing estimates.
In 1961, the NSA had 59,000 military and civilian employees, which grew to 93,067 in 1969, of which 19,300 worked at the headquarters at Fort Meade. In the early 1980s, NSA had roughly 50,000 military and civilian personnel. By 1989 this number had grown again to 75,000, of which 25,000 worked at the NSA headquarters. Between 1990 and 1995 the NSA's budget and workforce were cut by one-third, which led to a substantial loss of experience.<ref>Matthew M. Aid, The Secret Sentry, New York, 2009, pp. 128, 148, 190, and 198.</ref>

In 2012, the NSA said more than 30,000 employees worked at Fort Meade and other facilities.<ref name=60yearsp3 /> In 2012, [[John C. Inglis]], the deputy director, said that the total number of NSA employees is "somewhere between 37,000 and one billion" as a joke,<ref name=Introv /> and stated that the agency is "probably the biggest employer of [[Extraversion and introversion|introverts]]."<ref name=Introv /> In 2013 ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' stated that the NSA had 40,000 employees.<ref name="employees">{{cite news |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/prism-leak-inside-the-controversial-us-data-surveillance-program-a-904761.html |title=Prism Exposed: Data Surveillance with Global Implications |page=2 |publisher=Spiegel Online International |date=June 10, 2013 |newspaper=Spiegel Online |last1=Rosenbach |first1=Marcel |last2=Stark |first2=Holger |last3=Stock |first3=Jonathan |access-date=June 13, 2013 |archive-date=June 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130613165423/http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/prism-leak-inside-the-controversial-us-data-surveillance-program-a-904761.html |url-status=live }} "How can an intelligence agency, even one as large and well-staffed as the NSA with its 40,000 employees, work meaningfully with such a flood of information?"</ref> More widely, it has been described as the world's largest single employer of [[mathematician]]s.<ref>{{cite speech |title=Statement for the Record |author=Harvey A. Davis |date=March 12, 2002 |location=342 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. |url=https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/speeches_testimonies/12mar02.shtml |access-date=November 24, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090619013425/http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/speeches_testimonies/12mar02.shtml |archive-date=June 19, 2009 }}</ref> Some NSA employees form part of the workforce of the [[National Reconnaissance Office]] (NRO), the agency that provides the NSA with satellite [[signals intelligence]]. As of 2013 about 1,000 [[system administrator]]s work for the NSA.<ref name=DrewSengupta />

=== Personnel security ===
The NSA received criticism early on in 1960 after [[Martin and Mitchell defection|two agents]] had defected to the [[Soviet Union]]. Investigations by the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] and a special subcommittee of the [[United States House Committee on Armed Services]] revealed severe cases of ignorance of personnel security regulations, prompting the former personnel director and the director of security to step down and leading to the adoption of stricter security practices.<ref name="Kahn">David Kahn, ''The Codebreakers'', Scribner Press, 1967, chapter 19, pp. 672–733.</ref> Nonetheless, security breaches reoccurred only a year later when in an issue of ''[[Izvestia]]'' of July 23, 1963, a former NSA employee published several cryptologic secrets. The very same day, an NSA clerk-messenger committed [[suicide]] as ongoing investigations disclosed that he had sold secret information to the Soviets regularly. The reluctance of congressional houses to look into these affairs prompted a journalist to write, "If a similar series of tragic blunders occurred in any ordinary agency of Government an aroused public would insist that those responsible be officially censured, demoted, or fired." [[David Kahn (writer)|David Kahn]] criticized the NSA's tactics of concealing its doings as smug and the Congress' blind faith in the agency's right-doing as shortsighted and pointed out the necessity of surveillance by the Congress to prevent abuse of power.<ref name="Kahn" />

[[Edward Snowden]]'s leaking of the existence of [[PRISM (surveillance program)|PRISM]] in 2013 caused the NSA to institute a "[[two-man rule]]", where two system administrators are required to be present when one accesses certain sensitive information.<ref name=DrewSengupta>{{cite news|author1=Drew, Christopher|author2=Somini Sengupta|name-list-style=amp|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/technology/nsa-leak-puts-focus-on-system-administrators.html|title=N.S.A. Leak Puts Focus on System Administrators|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=June 24, 2013|access-date=June 25, 2013|archive-date=June 25, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130625074056/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/technology/nsa-leak-puts-focus-on-system-administrators.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Snowden claims he suggested such a rule in 2009.<ref name=edaccomplished>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/edward-snowden-after-months-of-nsa-revelations-says-his-missions-accomplished/2013/12/23/49fc36de-6c1c-11e3-a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html|title=Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission's accomplished|author=Barton Gellman|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=December 25, 2013|access-date=June 7, 2024|archive-date=December 1, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151201015330/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/edward-snowden-after-months-of-nsa-revelations-says-his-missions-accomplished/2013/12/23/49fc36de-6c1c-11e3-a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Polygraphing ====
[[File:DOD polygraph brochure.pdf|thumb|[[Defense Security Service]] (DSS) polygraph brochure given to NSA applicants]]
The NSA conducts [[polygraph]] tests of employees. For new employees, the tests are meant to discover enemy spies who are applying to the NSA and to uncover any information that could make an applicant pliant to coercion.<ref name=Bauer359>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EBkEGAOlCDsC&pg=PA359|author=Bauer, Craig P.|title=Secret History: The Story of Cryptology |publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-1-4665-6186-1|year=2013|page=359}}</ref> As part of the latter, historically ''EPQs'' or "embarrassing personal questions" about sexual behavior had been included in the NSA polygraph.<ref name=Bauer359 /> The NSA also conducts five-year periodic reinvestigation polygraphs of employees, focusing on counterintelligence programs. In addition, the NSA conducts periodic polygraph investigations to find spies and leakers; those who refuse to take them may receive "termination of employment", according to a 1982 memorandum from the director of the NSA.<ref name=BamfordBodyp538>{{cite book|author=Bamford|title=Body of Secrets|chapter=page 538 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VqY4Wr3T5K4C&pg=PA538 |author-link=James Bamford|title-link=Body of Secrets|date=18 December 2007|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing |isbn=9780307425058}}</ref>

[[File:NSApolygraphvideo.webm|thumb|left|180px|NSA-produced video on the polygraph process]]
There are also "special access examination" polygraphs for employees who wish to work in highly sensitive areas, and those polygraphs cover counterintelligence questions and some questions about behavior.<ref name=BamfordBodyp538 /> NSA's brochure states that the average test length is between two and four hours.<ref name=NSApolybrochure>{{cite web|title=Your Polygraph Examination: An Important Appointment to Keep|url=https://www.nsa.gov/careers/_files/poly_brochure_final2.pdf|publisher=National Security Agency|access-date=June 17, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130903162514/http://www.nsa.gov/careers/_files/poly_brochure_final2.pdf|archive-date=2013-09-03|url-status=dead}}</ref> A 1983 report of the [[Office of Technology Assessment]] stated that "It appears that the NSA [National Security Agency] (and possibly CIA) use the polygraph not to determine deception or truthfulness per se, but as a technique of interrogation to encourage admissions."<ref>{{cite news|author=McCarthy, Susan|title=The truth about the polygraph|url=http://www.salon.com/2000/03/02/polygraph/|work=[[Salon (website)|Salon]]|access-date=July 5, 2013|archive-date=August 16, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130816012934/http://www.salon.com/2000/03/02/polygraph/|url-status=live}}</ref> Sometimes applicants in the polygraph process confess to committing felonies such as murder, rape, and selling of illegal drugs. Between 1974 and 1979, of the 20,511 job applicants who took polygraph tests, 695 (3.4%) confessed to previous felony crimes; almost all of those crimes had been undetected.<ref name=Bauer359 />

In 2010 the NSA produced a video explaining its polygraph process.<ref name=Nageshvideo>{{cite news|author=Nagesh, Gautham|url=https://thehill.com/policy/technology/163354-nsa-video-tries-to-dispel-fear-about-polygraph-use-during-job-interviews/|title=NSA video tries to dispel fear about polygraph use during job interviews|work=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]]|date=June 14, 2010|access-date=June 15, 2013|archive-date=April 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230401085433/https://thehill.com/policy/technology/163354-nsa-video-tries-to-dispel-fear-about-polygraph-use-during-job-interviews/|url-status=live}}</ref> The video, ten minutes long, is titled "The Truth About the Polygraph" and was posted to the Web site of the [[Defense Security Service]]. Jeff Stein of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' said that the video portrays "various applicants, or actors playing them—it's not clear—describing everything bad they had heard about the test, the implication being that none of it is true."<ref name=Steinpolygraph>Stein, Jeff. "[http://voices.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/06/facing_nsas_lie_detector_relax.html NSA lie detectors no sweat, video says] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029200708/http://voices.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/06/facing_nsas_lie_detector_relax.html |date=2013-10-29 }}." ''The Washington Post''. June 14, 2010. Retrieved July 5, 2013.</ref> AntiPolygraph.org argues that the NSA-produced video omits some information about the polygraph process; it produced a video responding to the NSA video.<ref name="Nageshvideo" /><ref>{{cite web|last=Maschke|first=George|date=13 June 2010|title=The Truth About the Polygraph (According to the NSA)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93_FDeMENN4 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/93_FDeMENN4| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|access-date=15 July 2020|website=Youtube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> George Maschke, the founder of the Web site, accused the NSA polygraph video of being "[[Orwellian]]".<ref name=Steinpolygraph />

In 2013, an article indicated that after [[Edward Snowden]] revealed his identity in 2013, the NSA began requiring polygraphing of employees once per quarter.<ref name=Drezner>Drezner, Daniel. "[https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/12/16/tone_deaf_at_the_listening_post_my_day_at_the_NSA Tone-Deaf at the Listening Post] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140825152001/http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/12/16/tone_deaf_at_the_listening_post_my_day_at_the_NSA |date=2014-08-25 }}." ''[[Foreign Policy]]''. December 16, 2013. Retrieved March 1, 2014. "Snowden has also changed the way the NSA is doing business. Analysts have gone from being polygraphed once every five years to once every quarter."</ref>

=== Arbitrary firing ===
The number of exemptions from legal requirements has been criticized. When in 1964 Congress was hearing a bill giving the director of the NSA the power to fire at will any employee, ''The Washington Post'' wrote: "This is the very definition of arbitrariness. It means that an employee could be discharged and disgraced based on anonymous allegations without the slightest opportunity to defend himself." Yet, the bill was accepted by an overwhelming majority.<ref name="Kahn" /> Also, every person hired to a job in the US after 2007, at any private organization, state or federal government agency, ''must'' be reported to the [[New Hire Registry]], ostensibly to look for [[child support]] evaders, ''except'' that employees of an intelligence agency may be excluded from reporting if the director deems it necessary for national security reasons.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://dc-newhire.com/faqs#faq:4 |title=Is anyone exempt from this law? {{!}} District of Columbia New Hire Registry FAQ |website=dc-newhire.com |accessdate=18 November 2021 |archive-date=18 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211118125006/https://dc-newhire.com/faqs#faq:4 |url-status=live }}</ref>