PREVIEW: In The Crosshairs: How I Became the Target of an NSA Power Struggle, by Greg Hansen

Whoa, the way these attacks come out of the woodwork!


Intelligentsia is angry I see.

originally posted by: greghansen
a reply to: Siddharta

You have little idea what you are talking about. Thanks, BTW , for looking at my LinkedIn profile. yes I am pissed that I got laid off. I personally became the target of an NSA power struggle - no doubt about that. My crime was that I did what others wanted (REDACTED BY NSA) millions to do. If you think that wasting taxpayer dollars is fine, then good for you.

NSA employees - the Government employees - were afraid of me. Why? Because I kept bringing up their complete waste of funds.

So...until you have something valuable to add - STFU.

Thanks again for coming here to share your work. You didn't deserve that at all.

originally posted by: Siddharta
ATS is here to deny ignorance. So some critical questions are essential.
I support Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowdon.
I distrust anybody who comes out like this and has nothing to say, but: Have you read my book?

No, I haven't. Did you? He is just starting to promote it. I won't buy it. And that's all.

Critical isn't a demeaning ad hominem attack. Wonder when that will be learned by people until then expect these replies.

Wow, at this rate ATS won't be doing AMA's much longer, the membership here has no patience, civility, or respect.

So far there was an introduction thread, he got grilled.
This thread is only for a free chapter to read to get an idea of what the book has to offer, he gets flame broiled.

The AMA thread didn't even start yet.

If you are not going to buy his book, why bother posting "I won't be buying your book"? Nobody cares why so why post it? Debunk heroes in cyberspace....they are a dime a dozen.

originally posted by: Siddharta
a reply to: Granite

I was very successful with Jonathan Patrick Nolan and Robert Dillashaw, who both hate me for this up to date. But I still will watch other people with big statements and weak settings and call them out, if I think they are fake.

Dude, quit bragging about the notches on your bedpost, nobody cares.
There are probably people who don't like you just for you being you, just like everyone else on the planet.

Could people please try to be more civil in here and give the guy a break? How much longer do you think we will have guests invited if we act like children? It's ok to disagree or agree to disagree, but keep it civil.

originally posted by: Night Star
Could people please try to be more civil in here and give the guy a break? How much longer do you think we will have guests invited if we act like children? It's ok to disagree or agree to disagree, but keep it civil.

Personally I can understand why some posters have an issue with this.....Basically the only reason this OP authored a book and is against the NSA is because they were no longer needed. This raises serious questions about integrity and moral compass.



It is what it is.........

originally posted by: SubTruth

originally posted by: Night Star
Could people please try to be more civil in here and give the guy a break? How much longer do you think we will have guests invited if we act like children? It's ok to disagree or agree to disagree, but keep it civil.

Personally I can understand why some posters have an issue with this.....Basically the only reason this OP authored a book and is against the NSA is because they were no longer needed. This raises serious questions about integrity and moral compass.



It is what it is.........

No, it appears that he actually was needed but they kept the ones who keep the system broken while he got canned for pointing out deficiencies.

I see the underlying animosity for what it really is.
This guy comes out and says he was doing good for the NSA, making products that worked.
People here hate the NSA and the USA and love traitors like Assange and Snowden who just want to tear the system down.

This guy is a hero for the right reasons, saving tax payer money while contributing to the defense of the country. He didn't steal anything so he is not cool.

Come on people, admit it.

I am wondering what Mr. Hansen's true goals are with his book and then all of his involvement with ATS; i.e., being a member here with full disclosure of who he is, sharing a preview portion of his book, subjecting himself to public scrutiny here from the community; and all else.

I get it that he has a story to be told and obviously wants to promote his book via a platform where there are certain to be people interested in the subject matter. What are his personal reasons for all of this though -- the stuff down deep that drives him, as an individual, to do all of this?

What does he want to gain from this experience?

Probably a lot of gossip but all the technical important information have been purged out properly!!!

a reply to: schuyler

Kindle only at this point. I started working at NSA when I had my own company, then with General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, then with SAIC which spun off Leidos, at which time I became a Leidos employee.

a reply to: Night Star

Thanks for that and I apologize for being a "tad" less than civil.

a reply to: TinfoilTP

"He didn't steal anything so he is not cool."
That made me laugh. thanks.

I spent eight years fighting against an internal NSA system that crushed innovation in favor of self-promotion. If I were allowed to I would tell you exactly how much money was wasted in the efforts to crush my work, work that was done essentially for free. I battled my own management and NSA management for all of those eight years until I was worn out. Part of the problem is that employees of the IC are not rewarded on intelligence successes but on other factors.

I have to admit that before working in NTOC I was completely unaware of the General Schedule (GS) employee ranking system. On occasion I would hear a coworker say that he or she applied to work directly for the NSA but the best they would be offered was a GS-13 position. I wasn’t until I was actually embedded with NSA employees that I discovered that there is a correlation between the General Schedule and Senior Executive Service (SES) employee ranking system and the military ranking system. For example, an SES Grade 1 is the equivalent to a Rear Admiral or Brigadier General, a GS-15 is the equivalent of a Navy Captain or Air Force Colonel and so on. While a GS-14 employee would not be expected to salute a GS-15 employee, it seems apparent that a GS-14 would comply with orders given by a GS-15 employee.

There is a difference, however, between the manner in which officers in the military are promoted and General Schedule employees are promoted. The military uses an “up or out” merit system in which military officers who are passed over for promotion twice are usually discharged from the service. In fact, the 1980 Defense Officer Personnel Management Act mandates that officers passed over twice for promotion are required to be discharged from the military.

GS employees, on the other hand, are rewarded for just hanging around and staying out of serious trouble. What we as taxpayers get as a result are employees less interested in success than in feeding their own egos. When that happens the ability to act on intelligence is vastly reduced.

Hi Greg ... Welcome from me to ATS ...

"Based at Fort Meade, Md., with field offices around the world, the NSA harvests virtually every form of electronic communication"

Could you perhaps de mystify some of what goes on Re:-

Is Menwith Hill in England one of these field offices ... thanks in advance

a reply to: Sweepsalot

My intro says that I am a process improvement specialist. That's true. My original involvement with NSA was to improve its analytical processes. I only got involved with intelligence gathering because I was asked to train analysts in the use of a tool I created. My responsibilities never change, however. I found myself fighting against a system that wanted to "unimprove" the processes in place because of internal politics. The situation got so bad that USCYBERCOM cut off communications with the group in which I worked because of the attitude of a single individual.

What's my goal? To make the public aware of how our security is compromised by these petty battles. Do I expect anything to change? No - a lot of other people have tried before me. However, every little bit of information helps so maybe, just maybe, change will come to the IC.

a reply to: PeterMcFly

My book is loaded with technical information - in fact, I'm surprised that a lot of it survived NSA scrutiny. If you want to learn how (cyber intelligence in my case) is pursued you will learn it from my book.

a reply to: artistpoet

Menwith Hill is a Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) office. GCHQ is a British intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence and information assurance to the British government and armed forces.

a reply to: BlueMule

Yes - one of my favorite movies.

a reply to: thesaneone

make a buck? Are you kidding. Okay - let's review. I'm unemployed. Do you seriously think that writing and promoting my book is going to have job offers pouring in? I'm going to most likely be avoided like the plague. I don't expect to make much of anything, financially, that is.

Now get this. I was one of the highest paid SAIC/Leidos contractors in NTOC. The first time NSA tried to get rid of me they told SAIC that I made too much and had to be cut from the contract. SAIC, with the appropriate sad faces, told me that if I wanted to stay on I'd have to take a 25% pay cut. I knew what was up and not only took the cut but went part time, essentially cutting my income by 60%. Life is too short for that crap.

The next time they didn't give me the chance to take the pay cut. I would have worked for free just to stick around and create problems for the NSA employees who had been on my case for 8 years (some of whom were my friends until they left SAIC and started working directly for the Government).

Now get this - Leidos is advertising my old job. I applied for it. I want to see them deny me an interview.

So - make a buck? Not very likely.

a reply to: greghansen

That answer doesn't do it for me. What you said is more of a rehearsed type of 'safe' response that one might give to an interviewer.

I want to know what you, personally, are hoping to gain from all of this. Financial gain is probably not your primary motivation here, but there is more to all of this than just you wanting to increase public awareness of potential security compromises that stem from inner squabbles within government agencies.

I think that you are guarding your real reasons for doing this.

a reply to: greghansen

I'll be reading the book GH - For your stories, inside info and a bit of first hand knowledge of how these systems work.

To hear you are a process improvement specialist too - in most jobs this gives you free reign to dig into all areas you need to.

Good luck with it Greg!

originally posted by: SkepticOverlord

That is what Trailblazer, launched in November 1999 by then-NSA Director Michael Hayden, was designed to address. The program was launched in 1999 was to enable NSA analysts to connect the 2 million bits of data the agency ingests every hour and enable analysts to quickly pick out the most important information

Does Greg mean 2 million separate pieces of correlated data per hour (impressive) or 2MB of data/Hour (not so impressive)?

Confusing start if tech specs are going to feature.