Think about it this way: other countries have no apparent problem feeding high-caliber talent into overtly, unmistakably evil applications of offensive security. Look at China, for instance.
I don't think the Snowden saga had zero impact on recruiting at NSA; I just think the long-term marginal impact to NSA staffing is negligible.
Worth adding: this article and my comment can't really falsify each other; they're somewhat orthogonal.
I guess I mainly think about IA/defense. NSA blowback is keeping good IA/defense (and in particular, people building IA/defense tools) people from joining USG. Instead, those people join private companies to build tools to protect companies from, among other threats, USG, or work on actual privacy tools for end users directly aimed at defeating governments.
I don't know the people in the pipeline into TAO/offensive side well enough to speculate much about recruiting efforts. All the more kinetic offense people I know are there because 1) they believe deeply in the US/constitution/etc. 2) view the world in black/white 3) enjoy kicking in doors, so I assume the same is true in the TAO world.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6185322
Think about it this way: other countries have no apparent problem feeding high-caliber talent into overtly, unmistakably evil applications of offensive security. Look at China, for instance.
I don't think the Snowden saga had zero impact on recruiting at NSA; I just think the long-term marginal impact to NSA staffing is negligible.
Worth adding: this article and my comment can't really falsify each other; they're somewhat orthogonal.