January 2008 Meeting

Insider Threats

Brian Snow

Mathematician/computer scientist, Brian taught mathematics and helped found the computer science department at Ohio University in the 1960’s. He joined the National Security Agency in 1971 where he became a cryptologic designer and security systems engineer.

Brian spent his first 20 years at NSA doing and directing research that developed cryptographic components and secure systems. Many cryptographic systems serving the U.S. government and military use his algorithms; they provide capabilities not previously available, and span a range from nuclear command and control to tactical radios for the battlefield. Computer Security and Network Security were major aspects for these systems. He created and managed NSA’s Secure Systems Design division in the 1980s. He has many patents, awards, and honors attesting to his creativity.

His later years at NSA were the model for what it means to be a senior Technical Director at NSA (similar to a Chief Scientist or Senior Technical Fellow in industry); he served in that capacity in three major mission components –

• The Research Directorate (1994-1995),
• The Information Assurance Directorate (1996-2002), and
• The Directorate for Education and Training --NSA’s Corporate University   (2003-2006)

He was the first Technical Director appointed at the “Key Component” level at NSA, and the only “techie” at NSA to serve in such a role across three different Directorates.

In all of his positions, he insisted that the actions NSA took to provide intelligence for our national and military leaders should not put U.S. persons or their rights at risk. He was a leading voice for always assessing the unintended consequences of both success and failure prior to taking action.

He served as a strong mentor to other technical directors; the guiding principles he followed and tried to instill in them were:

1. Managers are responsible for doing things right; Technical Directors are responsible for finding the right things to do.
2. Be a Technical Truth-Teller – Cry rubbish if rubbish is served. Be the Technical Conscience of your organization; this includes championing Technical Ethics. Be the Technical Quality Control Officer of the organization.
3. You have influence, not authority, so it is critical that you communicate well across all disciplines in your organization. Be an evangelist, a motivator.
4. Be an agent of change for your organization. Be the first to spot the new that must be done, or to identify a gap that needs to be addressed. Gap-spotting is very important.
5. Provide/Improve the technical vision for your organization, supporting this function at need by performing in-depth technical analyses for your manager on selected major technical issues facing the organization.
6. Monitor the Technical Health of the organization and its employees, recommending and guiding improvements where necessary.
7. In addition to personal technical delivery, focus on delivering technical judgment on the work of others, and how different technologies can interact to solve problems. Become a systems engineer not of components, but of technical ideas.

Brian retired in March 2006, and now consults on security matters and gives speeches in appropriate fora.

B.A. mathematics 1965 -- University of Colorado
M.A. mathematics 1967 -- University of Colorado

Additional graduate course work:

University of Ohio     -- 1969-1971 (Computer Science)
University of Maryland -- 1972-1973 (Mathematics)