Ask HN: What is a day like for someone who works in cybersecurity for the NSA? - aml183
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thr0waway098765
Obviously using a throw away for privacy reasons.

Every shift started with a passdown where the departing shift would go section
by section to brief the incoming shift on key events and ongoing operations.

You'd get your workstation up and quickly coordinate with your departing shift
counterpart, then take control of the mission.

Your actual work for the day depended heavily on what shift you were assigned
because here it could be day and there it could be night, etc.

Sometimes, you'd need to knock out required training related to intelligence
analysis, foreign intelligence collection, and general professional office
related things.

You'd usually eat lunch at your desk unless it was a slow day and then you'd
have time to eat in the cafeteria.

Eventually you'd reach the end of your shift and do the passdown as the
departing shift.

Caveats, this was a contractor, but when I worked for the NSA as a soldier in
the army, my day included normal military things like formations and physical
training.

Another caveat, they didn't much like me poking around in VMs or writing
arbitrary python scripts to improve my workflow as those weren't authorized
under my contract. Our entire company got an email that luckily didn't name
names.

Note that the downtime was spent improving work skills and increasing cultural
knowledge related to our Area of Responsibility.

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Terretta
Binge watch "The Good Wife", there's a multi-season NSA arc.

// Don't make life decisions based on the portrayal.

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Nomentatus
The same dull stuff as most other jobs, it's just that you keep feeling you
should be showering more. (Of course, if the Constitution were still a thing,
it'd be a good and noble job.)

~~~
bbcbasic
Like JIRA, Confluence etc

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techjuice
It is classified, just like all of cybersecurity is for all nation states at
the federal level.

