NSA built National Cryptologic Museum to protect it's privacy

I came across a short article about a museum of cryptography.

Most people might not be aware of it, but there's a National Cryptologic Museum at Ft. Meade, at NSA Headquarters.

Source: www.schneier.com...

The author had not much clue about the history of the museum, but we can read a comment on the site that is quite insightful!

As I was told by someone involved with this, one evening an employee was working late there on an interesting project, and when he left the building he was in, decided he was too tired to safely drive home. There was a little hotel nearby, so he went and got a room there to sleep. Next morning he got up, looked out, and realized he had a good line-of-sight to where his office was. He went, got a pair of binoculars, and checked if it was possible to see into any offices, which it indeed was.

Apperently the next day the owners of the hotel got an offer to buy the hotel they could not refuse, so it was purchased by the NSA. It sat unused for a while, and was used as storage, but eventually someone suggested turning it into a museum, blocking off access to the areas that previously (but no longer) had a view into the complex.

Too bad I do not live near NSA's headquarters or I would have visited it right now!

[edit on 5-8-2010 by gagol]