NSA Targets ‘Lost’ Fans

The CIA aren’t the only spooks with wacky recruit­ing stunts. The sig­nals intel­li­gence snoops over at the National Security Agency are try­ing out tricks of their own, to reel in poten­tial employ­ees. The lat­est, accord­ing to Defense Tech pal Siobhan Gorman: a first-​​ever series of TV ads, air­ing on episodes of “Lost” and “CSI.“

“It was the demo­graphic we were look­ing for,” said NSA spokesman Donny Weber, who said the com­mer­cial was aimed at col­lege stu­dents and pro­fes­sion­als in the [Baltimore-​​Washington] region’s high-​​tech cor­ri­dor…
The ad prompted a surge in inter­est among would-​​be recruits, with nearly 4,000 vis­it­ing the NSA’s Web site after see­ing the com­mer­cial, John Taflan, the agency’s direc­tor of human resources, said in a writ­ten state­ment…
As techno music blares and a radi­ant blue globe spins in the back­ground, rapid-​​fire scenes flash on the screen, from a heli­copter to a ship to a per­son with a red-​​and-​​white-​​checked scarf obscur­ing his face, pre­sum­ably rep­re­sent­ing a ter­ror­ist…
“Our adver­saries do their best to keep their plans a secret. At the National Security Agency, we uncover those secrets, and keep our own secrets safe,” the nar­ra­tor says… “That’s why NSA employs only the most intel­li­gent peo­ple in the coun­try.” She asks view­ers to “explore career options at NSA” by vis­it­ing the NSA’s Web site.
The com­mer­cial was designed to appeal to a highly edu­cated crowd that might not have con­sid­ered the NSA as a career oppor­tu­nity before, Weber said. He said he did not have infor­ma­tion on how much the ad buy cost or who pro­duced it…
The place­ment of the NSA com­mer­cial sur­prised some intel­li­gence pro­fes­sion­als. Describing Lost as a tele­vi­sion vari­a­tion on “Dungeons and Dragons,” CIA vet­eran Ron Marks said its view­ers are exactly the ones the NSA should be recruit­ing.
“What a won­der­ful way of reach­ing an audi­ence that’s inter­ested in problem-​​solving and think­ing dif­fer­ently,” he said, not­ing that U.S. intel­li­gence agen­cies have done lit­tle to reach out to the grow­ing num­ber of com­puter gamers and other teenage technophiles.

UPDATE 11:34 AM: While this might be Ft. Meade’s first attempt to attract the pubes­cent D&D set, the Agency has been going after role-​​players’ gram­mar school sib­lings for years.

October 23rd, 2006 | Cloak and Dagger | 2178No Comments »http://defensetech.org/2006/10/23/nsa-targets-lost-fans/NSA+Targets+%27Lost%27+Fans2006-10-23+16%3A12%3A40jason You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.