Thread View: sci.crypt
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Started by Joseph Albert
Sun, 16 Aug 1992 04:26
translators at NSA
Author: Joseph Albert
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 04:26
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 04:26
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Christopher_C_Lapp@cup.portal.com writes: > I noticed a full page advertisement recruiting for the National > security agency in the American Translators Association bulletin. > Why would the NSA want language types? I thought they did alot > number-crunching and your average translator has had little or > no math background. Also, don't they have a whole much of > Defense Language School types who have been drilled in every > language imaginable? Is the NSA just fishing? Are they desparate > for talent or what? Well, for one thing, they need people versed in various languages to work on cracking encryption schemes used to encode information gathered via intelligence operations. For example, if you were an expert cryptographer, and were trying to break a cryptosystem used to encipher Russian text, how would you know when you have obtained plausible Russian prose unless you were fluent in Russian? I know someone who is fluent in Polish who worked for the NSA in that capacity, that is worked with a cryptographer. I suspect that the NSA hires *many* such people. Joseph Albert albert@hplabs.hp.com
Re: translators at NSA
Author: Robert L Ullmann
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 00:06
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 00:06
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Hi, More likely, NSA wants language experts to translate papers on (e.g.) cryptography from open sources that are not otherwise accessible to their experts whom, as you point out, are trained in other fields, and not necessarily fluent in the requisite languages. Note that one attribute of the NSA is that they are charged with knowing and monitoring *everything* in their field. If a paper is published in Tamil about some odd mathematical theory, making that paper available to their researchers is an imperative. Rob -- Robert Ullmann Ariel@World.STD.COM +1 508 879 6994 x226 Quand Maigret poussa la porte du Tabac Fontaine, vers une heure et demie, le patron du bar, qui venait de se lever, descendait lentement un escalier en colima çon qui s'amor çait dans l'arri ère-salle. ... Arriv é derri ère le comptoir, il repousa le gar çon d'un geste n égligent de la main, saisit une bouteille de vin blanc, un verre, m élangea au vin d l'eau min érale et, la t ête renvers ée en arri ère, se gargarisa. -- Simenon
Re: translators at NSA
Author: Louis A. Mamakos
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 13:43
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 13:43
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In article <Bt5KAH.M73@world.std.com> ariel@world.std.com (Robert L Ullmann) writes: >Hi, > >More likely, NSA wants language experts to translate papers >on (e.g.) cryptography from open sources that are not otherwise >accessible to their experts whom, as you point out, are trained >in other fields, and not necessarily fluent in the requisite >languages. I think this discussion is missing probably the most obvious use of foreign language translators.. translating voice intercepts! Not all communication is done digitally. People use phones and radios all over the world. I grew up and went to high school very close to NSA. In fact, my junior high school was on Fort Meade, and our bus used to ride through their parking lot every day. They are one of the larger employers of foreign language majors out of school in the area. They've also got thie really cool building that we got to watch being built which has looks to have a copper conductive surface. I guess if you build a tempest building, you can buy cheaper hardware to put IN the building! louie
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