Suicides Raise Alarm Inside US Cybersecurity Agencies

0:00 Jake, this is such an important story, and I wanna actually pull a quote from it. Quote, there is a lot of stress that a lot of us overlook because we think cyber is a way from the front. And physically, that's accurate, but intellectually and emotionally, it's inaccurate. This is from a former senior executive at NSA and CIA. Can you walk us through what the environment inside the NSA and cyber command is like right now, particularly amid many global conflicts?

0:28 Absolutely. And thank you for having me on and for the attention to this issue. We've had people who work, for the NSA and cyber command describe a really challenging work environment to us. There, of course, oftentimes people whose work is dealing with the substance of American conflicts abroad, but they do so while driving home, at the end of the day. And that transition going from sort of doing secretive military work, on a base and then suddenly having to pick up the kids from daycare or going to the grocery store, that can be a little, a a harsh transition. What we've heard from people working in these spaces is that over the past... You know, roughly about the past year, the tempo of their work has increased dramatically. They're, under what is sort of described as an extended surge, condition where they're working often very long hours, and it's taken a strain or it's a real strain for them.

1:35 And, Jake, the cluster of suicides that you're reporting on here have been elevated to senior leadership, some of the highest levels of government. Now that there is attention to it, has anything changed for the working conditions for for the folks that you're reporting on? That's right. This has, really taken on interest at the highest levels within the military, at congress, up to... Right up to the White House after, five deaths over the course of a... About a month long period in June and July. And we know that the mental health of people working for US Cyber Command, people working for the NSA is something that there's been concern with for some time. But in the wake of these suicides, military leadership began pushing to accelerate getting more mental health care workers into, these commands to help, the staff. And, also, congress has been pressing, members of congress, for more funding for mental health care support at these agencies, something their leaders have been asking for.

2:43 Could the mental health strain become a national security issue in its own right? I think it's it's hard to say exactly what has led any of these people to take their own lives, but the, you know, mental health of these people, the the health of them in any kind is being taken seriously and is being treated as an issue of great concern because a lot of instances, they are America's war fighters. They are the intelligence officials who are relied on to, you know, protect operations abroad. Okay.