[Cryptography] Happy birthday, NSA!

[Jerry Leichter]

> I attended a networking show in the '90's and was talking to a bunch of people who all had "Department of Defense" name tags...  BTW, whenever you called one of their phone numbers, they answered only with their extension number (I imagine because it was easy to misdial).
> 
> I've also tried to run reverse directories on these phone numbers, with zero success (as would be expected).
This is actually pretty common for any agency that's concerned about security.  I heard about it many years ago from someone who worked in a prosecutor's office.

(On the other hand, I heard a story from someone who went to a job fair at his college - again many years ago.  He talked to some CIA recruiters who in his estimation were ... not very good.  One of them really tried to recruit him, and gave him a business card.  The guy looked at the business card, back at the recruiter, and said "so I guess this isn't your real name, then."  The recruiter turned red, reached out, and took the card back.  The same guy talked to NSA recruiters as well.  While he had no interest in taking a government position, he did think the NSA guys, unlike the CIA guys, were really sharp and knew their stuff.)
                                                        -- Jerry