National Security Agency PART_OF Department of Defense
Marcus states that the NSA is a Department of Defense asset.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Marcus J. Carey EP 83 Details
“NSA is the Department of Defense asset.”
Episode
19 January 2021 Official episode · Official transcript
advanced persistent threat
The episode features Marcus J. Carey and Jeff Man discussing their NSA-related careers, cryptography, defensive security, cyber ranges, NSA red-team work, and Operation Eligible Receiver.
Topics: NSA cryptographic communications and signals intelligence, Software-based cryptography on early IBM PCs, One-time pads and key destruction, Cryptanalysis and misuse of cryptographic systems, Network operations centers and security operations centers, Cyber ranges and hands-on forensic training, Red teaming and adversary emulation, Open-source reconnaissance, Password guessing and exposed password hashes, Internal penetration testing, DDoS attacks and military network reconnaissance, MILNET, SIPRNet, NIPRNet, and DII networks, Government website defacement, NSA oversight and legal authorization for security testing, SHA-256 and cryptographic backdoor claims
Links published on the Darknet Diaries episode page. Not LLM output.
Qualified statements from this episode, not graph facts.
National Security Agency PART_OF Department of Defense
Marcus states that the NSA is a Department of Defense asset.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Marcus J. Carey EP 83 Details
“NSA is the Department of Defense asset.”
Marcus J. Carey MEMBER_OF United States Navy
Marcus says he joined and served in the Navy, including three years on a ship.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Marcus J. Carey EP 83 Details
“I joined the Navy”
“I did three years on a ship.”
Marcus J. Carey ASSOCIATED_WITH National Security Agency
Marcus describes himself as a Navy intelligence asset tasked by the NSA and later working at Fort Meade on augmented staff.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Marcus J. Carey EP 83 Details
“my whole job in the military was you’re pretty much an attache or an asset for NSA”
“I was still in the Navy and sort of on loan to the NSA.”
Marcus J. Carey MEMBER_OF Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center
Marcus says that after working at the NSA he went to work for the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“he got out of the Navy and went to work for the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center.”
Defense Cyber Forensics Laboratory PART_OF Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center
Marcus says that DC3 has an entity called DCFL, its forensic laboratory.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Marcus J. Carey EP 83 Details
“The DC3 still exists. It has this thing called DCFL.”
National Security Agency ASSOCIATED_WITH NIST
Marcus says that NSA and NIST work hand-in-hand on security guidance for American businesses.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Marcus J. Carey EP 83 Details
“NSA and NIST, they work hand-in-hand to try to help all American businesses stay secure as well.”
Threatcare DEVELOPED_BY Marcus J. Carey
Jack says Marcus started Threatcare to create threat scenarios and conduct cyber-range and tabletop exercises.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“Marcus took what he learned at this place and started his own company creating threat scenarios and doing more cyber range and tabletop exercises. He called it Threatcare.”
Threatcare ASSOCIATED_WITH ReliaQuest
Threatcare was acquired by ReliaQuest, according to Jack.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“Threatcare was acquired by a larger company called ReliaQuest”
Marcus J. Carey AUTHORED Tribe of Hackers
Marcus authored the book Tribe of Hackers.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“he wrote a book and it’s called Tribe of Hackers.”
Marcus J. Carey AUTHORED Tribe of Hackers Red Team Edition
Marcus authored Tribe of Hackers Red Team Edition.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“there’s Tribe of Hackers Red Team Edition”
Marcus J. Carey AUTHORED Tribe of Hackers Blue Team Edition
Marcus authored Tribe of Hackers Blue Team Edition.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“Blue Team Edition”
Marcus J. Carey AUTHORED Tribe of Hackers Security Leaders
Marcus authored Tribe of Hackers Security Leaders.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“and Tribe of Hackers Security Leaders.”
Jeff Man MEMBER_OF National Security Agency
Jeff says he began working at the NSA in the fall of 1986 and spent about twelve years there.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“Jeff started working at the NSA in the fall of 1986.”
“Jeff was with the NSA for twelve years”
Jeff Man MEMBER_OF System and Network Attack Center
Jeff describes being part of the group swept into the reorganization that created SNAC.
Explicit Confidence 95% · Jeff Man EP 83 Details
“we got swept into this reorganization and moved to a different building”
“they set up what became known as the System and Network Attack Center.”
The Pit PART_OF System and Network Attack Center
Jack states that The Pit was part of the System and Network Attack Center.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“This Pit as they called it was part of SNAC, the System Network and Attack Center”
The Pit conducted internal penetration testing and red teaming, although the terminology was not yet common.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“Jeff and the team in The Pit were doing internal penetration testing, red teaming.”
The Pit USES password guessing
Jeff describes the team using password guessing to access idle accounts and identify passwords.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jeff Man EP 83 Details
“what was commonly done back then to break into UNIX systems and UNIX networks was – there was password-guessing”
Jeff says password hashes could be copied and processed with Crack programs.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jeff Man EP 83 Details
“you could just copy them and run crack programs like Crack or John the Ripper.”
The Pit USES John the Ripper
Jeff says password hashes could be processed with John the Ripper.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jeff Man EP 83 Details
“run crack programs like Crack or John the Ripper.”
The Pit USES Open-source intelligence
The Pit gathered publicly available information about targets, people, naming conventions, and likely passwords before seeking approval for an attack.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jeff Man EP 83 Details
“We’d try to learn as much as we could about the target from a benign perspective”
“We would do that sort of open-reconnaissance”
Operation Eligible Receiver OPERATED_BY National Security Agency
Jack says the NSA launched Operation Eligible Receiver as a no-notice training attack against US government and military networks.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“in 1997, the NSA launched Operation Eligible Receiver.”
Operation Eligible Receiver INVOLVES DDoS attack
The exercise involved actively conducting DDoS attacks.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“They were actively conducting DDoS attacks”
Operation Eligible Receiver INVOLVES Open-source intelligence
The exercise used open-source intelligence to identify ways to infiltrate military bases and networks.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“using open-source intelligence to figure out ways to infiltrate different military bases and networks”
Operation Eligible Receiver INVOLVES MILNET
Captain1 says the exercise required reconnaissance of MILNET.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Captain1 EP 83 Details
“we were required to do reconnaissance of both the MILNET and the SIPRNet”
Operation Eligible Receiver INVOLVES SIPRNet
Captain1 says the exercise required reconnaissance of SIPRNet.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Captain1 EP 83 Details
“we were required to do reconnaissance of both the MILNET and the SIPRNet”
Operation Eligible Receiver INVOLVES NIPRNet
Captain2 identifies NIPRNet as one of the military network domains examined during reconnaissance.
Explicit Confidence 95% · Captain2 EP 83 Details
“better known as [01:20:00] MILNET or NIPRNet”
Operation Eligible Receiver ASSOCIATED_WITH Jeff Man
Jeff says he was involved in Eligible Receiver without knowing it at the time, because a visitor to The Pit was gathering information for the exercise.
Uncertain Confidence 90% · Jeff Man EP 83 Details
“Yeah, so yes, I was involved. I didn’t know it at the time.”
Department of Justice website defacement (1996) INVOLVES Department of Justice
The 1996 defacement was an attack against a Department of Justice website.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“a hacker broke into one of the DOJ’s websites”
Department of Justice website defacement (1996) INVOLVES Janet Reno
The defacement replaced the picture of Attorney General Janet Reno with a picture of Adolf Hitler.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“replaced the picture of Janet Reno who was the attorney general with a picture of Adolf Hitler”
SHA-256 DEVELOPED_BY National Security Agency
Jack states that SHA-256 was made by the NSA; Jeff does not confirm the claim and says he would not disclose the answer if he knew it.
Uncertain Confidence 65% · Jack Rhysider EP 83 Details
“SHA-256 was made by the NSA.”
“I don’t know how you would do that with a hashing algorithm.”
Works mentioned in the transcript. Distinct from show-note sources.
Model gpt-5.6-luna · prompt 1.5.19 · schema 1.5.19 · 2026-09-13T06:50:01.984111+00:00