Jenna McLaughlin
Jenna McLaughlin is NPR's cybersecurity correspondent, focusing on the intersection of national security and technology.
McLaughlin, who joined NPR in September 2021, aims to tell the human stories behind the hackers — taking listeners beyond the technical details and diving into the reasons why technology's vulnerabilities and the people who exploit them matter to both the individual and the world.
Before joining NPR, McLaughlin covered national security, intelligence and technology for a range of publications, including Mother Jones Magazine, The Intercept, Foreign Policy Magazine, CNN and Yahoo News.
For example, in 2016, she uncovered startling details concerning a wave of former U.S. intelligence officials performing offensive cyber and other intelligence activities for the U.A.E. government, several of whom in 2021 brokered a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department. In 2018, McLaughlin was part of a team that exposed how a flaw in a CIA covert communication tool led to the imprisonment and death of CIA human sources in China and Iran.
In addition to serious national security stories, McLaughlin has interviewed high school debate teams on their views about privacy and surveillance in the wake of NSA contractor Edward Snowden's disclosures in 2013, toured the NSA's Hawaii outpost on the North Shore of Oahu beneath the pineapple fields, and sampled a meal made with Blackwater Beef, an attempt made by infamous military contractor Erik Prince to rebrand into the food industry in rural Virginia.
McLaughlin's work has earned her national recognition, including the Gerald R. Ford Award for Reporting on the National Defense in 2019 and a finalist nomination in 2020 for the University of Michigan's Livingston Awards honoring the best journalists under the age of 35.
Her reporting has taken her from Abu Dhabi to Estonia, and she hopes to regularly travel outside Washington in her role at NPR.
McLaughlin in based in Washington and has appeared as an analyst on MSNBC and CBSN, in addition to frequently moderating expert panels. She is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University's Writing Seminars Program, where she was a sea kayaking instructor and Wilderness First Responder.
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A top House Democrat is asking Microsoft for information about a DOGE staffer's GitHub account connected to whistleblower allegations of sensitive data leaving the National Labor Relations Board. -
DOGE employees demanded the highest level of access to the labor agency's systems, according to a whistleblower and reporting from NPR. The whistleblower said sensitive data then left the agency. -
Two members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency were given accounts on classified networks that hold highly guarded details about America's nuclear weapons, two sources tell NPR. -
Members of the Congressional Labor Caucus wrote the letter after NPR reported that a whistleblower says DOGE may have removed sensitive labor data and compromised the security of computer systems. -
The National Labor Relations Board told employees Wednesday that DOGE staffers would be assigned to the agency, one day after a whistleblower alleged DOGE may have removed sensitive NLRB data. -
A top House Democrat is asking independent agency watchdogs to investigate after NPR reporting revealed DOGE may have taken sensitive data from the National Labor Relations Board. -
A whistleblower tells Congress and NPR that DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data and hid its tracks. "None of that ... information should ever leave the agency," said a former NLRB official. -
Here's a summary of NPR's findings about the report that a whistleblower filed to Congress about how DOGE violated security protocols and could have removed sensitive labor data. -
New court filings give more details about a small number of DOGE staffers granted sweeping access to sensitive government data systems. -
The appointment of Catherine Eschbach could raise conflict-of-interest concerns. She will also lead the downsizing of an agency that holds contractors accountable to federal civil rights laws.
