More Tales from the Crypt...analyst picks up with the speaker's third tour of duty at NSA where he became one of the founding members of NSA's first penetration testing or Red Team. While the thought of NSA hiring hackers or engaging in cyber warfare might be fairly common today, it was not always the case. Somebody had to be first, and the policies, procedures, methodologies, and rules of engagement had to be developed for not only conducting what we called Vulnerability and Threat Assessments, but for successfully navigating the politics, bureaucracy, and reticence of this often-misunderstood clandestine organization. The first NSA penetration testing team was assembled as a part of the newly formed center of excellence called the Systems and Network Attack Center (SNAC). To quote Charles Dickens, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. Come hear some war stories from the early days and see how this industry and the practice of penetration testing has evolved in the past 25 years.