http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43264-2005Jan2.html By Christian Davenport Washington Post Staff Writer January 3, 2005 Nicknamed "No Such Agency" and "Never Say Anything" for its legendary secrecy, the National Security Agency conceals its headquarters behind tall fences topped with barbed wire. Its employees are in the business of breaking codes, eavesdropping and guarding secrets. And its normally reticent leaders rarely call attention to themselves outside the agency's sprawling campus. So it was an extraordinary event when some of the agency's top officials emerged in Annapolis about a year ago at the opening of a business center dedicated to helping start-up homeland security companies. Their message was also extraordinary: The NSA needs help fighting the war against global terrorism. "I'm looking for new ideas," said Daniel G. Wolf, the NSA's information assurance director. "We want to hear what you have." In November, the agency announced that it would pump $445,000 into the center, whose companies are at the vanguard of security technology: finding cures for bioterrorism diseases, protecting computer networks from hackers, developing software designed to find terrorists. As the intelligence industry continues to expand since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the clandestine agency is playing a more prominent -- and visible -- role in the Washington region. With plans to hire 7,500 new employees over five years, the NSA, already Anne Arundel County's largest employer, is undergoing its largest recruiting drive since the Cold War. The agency is also increasingly opening its doors to private companies for help in developing spy technologies. The business center in Annapolis is just one example of how the burgeoning intelligence industry is affecting the region. Highly secure office parks that house defense contractors have sprouted up near the agency's headquarters and nearby Baltimore-Washington International Airport. In Greenbelt, a headhunting agency that serves only clients with security clearances is seeing double-digit growth every month. Home to the Pentagon, CIA, FBI and NSA, the Washington area has long been a place where the intentionally vague phrase "I work for the government" has been code for one of the security agencies. But now, an increasing number of people demur when asked what they do for a living. "I'm a contractor for the Department of Defense, doing computer stuff," is how Jason, 31, of Annapolis answers. It's the computer stuff he hopes people focus on, because then they "think I'm an IT guy." And nothing ends a conversation faster than the words information technology, said Jason, who spoke only on the condition that his last name not be used. Copious Security Features >From the outside, the National Business Park, next to the NSA and Fort Meade, seems like an ordinary set of modern office buildings, just like the corporate parks all around Washington. But there is nothing ordinary about it. Built to exacting government security standards with a uniform concern -- protecting the technology designed to help intelligence agencies catch terrorists -- the buildings are part of a growing breed of highly secure commercial complexes with cloak-and-dagger amenities. Known as SCIFs -- sensitive compartmented information facilities -- they often have film on the windows to prevent eavesdropping, walls fitted with soundproof steel plates or white-noise makers embedded in the ceiling that prevent spy bugs from picking up top-secret conversations, according to developers and construction officials. Some even have a lattice of metal bars in the air ducts to keep out prowlers. The buildings at the National Business Park are loaded with SCIF space, said Randall M. Griffin, president and chief operating officer of Corporate Office Properties, which owns the site. But he would not discuss their specific security measures. Demand for secured office space has grown so much that all the park's 1.7 million square feet is leased, to such defense contracting giants as Northrop Grumman Corp., Computer Sciences Corp., Titan and Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. Construction of a second phase of the park, which would add 10 buildings comprising 1.3 million square feet, is underway. During an event at the Maryland State House last summer, in which it was announced that the NSA would be working more closely with state and local governments, NSA officials again stepped out in public view. And again they said they needed to tap into local companies for help. "It's growing out of an awareness that we can't solve all of our problems" alone, Eric C. Haseltine, the agency's associate director of research, told reporters. Intelligence spending has mushroomed in the years since Sept. 11. Previously, intelligence spending hovered around $30 billion a year, said John E. Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, an intelligence policy think tank. Since then, it's grown to about $40 billion annually, he said. Hoping to cash in on the growth, Anne Arundel helped start the Chesapeake Innovation Center, the country's first incubator that works exclusively with new homeland security companies. Walking into the center, in a squat brick building near downtown Annapolis, is a little like entering Q's laboratory in James Bond's world. In one office, researchers for PharmAthene are working on vaccines for diseases that could spread during a bioterrorism attack, including anthrax. Three flights up, Secure Processing Inc. is developing methods for businesses to keep their computer networks safe from insiders. You never know when someone posing as a loyal employee may try to steal important secrets, said Terence Flyntz, the company's chief executive. "We're talking about disgruntled employees, potential spies, even terrorists who could embed themselves and pretend they are something else," he said. "They could pose even as janitors," he added. Another company, Harbinger Associates, has developed software that can take an Arabic name, run through all its English spellings and match them against a watch list. Because Arabic names are often spelled many different ways in English, the person for whom authorities are looking can often slip by, according to the company. The software is almost complete, and Harbinger officials hope their product will soon be used behind the guarded walls of the NSA. 'Cleared' and Taking Off He's a high-tech wiz, which makes him marketable enough. But it's his top-level security clearance that makes him such a hot commodity. He's so sought after that he doesn't even have to hold down a steady job in one place. Instead, Derek, who would not provide his last name for security reasons, does freelance information technology work for the government and private companies looking for someone trusted to keep secrets. Derek, 34, earns about $170,000 a year, jumping from project to project. And whenever he needs a new gig, he goes to Kelly FedSecure, a Greenbelt-based personnel firm that works exclusively with "cleared" people. Richard Piske and business partner Gary Morris noticed the growing demand for workers qualified to work on classified projects. Two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, they founded a headhunting company and temporary agency for people with clearance. In 2003, the company was purchased by Kelly Services Inc., one of the largest personnel service companies in the country. And over the past year, Kelly FedSecure has had double-digit growth from month to month, Piske said. "The overall demand for cleared people . . . is up significantly since 9/11," he said. "And the forecasted demand is not projected to abate for the foreseeable future." Pat Hiban, a Columbia real estate broker, knew only that his former neighbors worked for the NSA. Every so often, an investigator he assumed was an FBI agent would knock on his door. Polite but persistent, the investigator would say he was updating background checks on Hiban's neighbors. "Have they done anything you'd think would be unpatriotic?" Hiban said the investigator would ask. Even after those visits, Hiban never pressed his neighbors for more detail about their lives. They simply were like a lot of people he meets, through business or the neighborhood, who quickly change the subject when employment comes up. "You get used to it around here," he said. "It happens pretty frequently." _________________________________________ Open Source Vulnerability Database (OSVDB) Everything is Vulnerable - http://www.osvdb.org/
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