Hey! This is a question that has been driving me crazy I am a high school student looking to apply for the NSA intern program but I’m wary of doing it because of things I’ve done in the past.
All the things I’ve done include:
DDoS attacks of people who threaten and annoy me on xbox I’ve been peer pressured by my friends into doing this but I admit sometimes I’ve done it when I haven’t been peer pressured (I’ve attempted this 5 times only one time I can guarantee succeded I’ve quit this and regret this).
Logging into a school computer of a classmate who authorized me to login to his school computer and changing the background.
Bullying (I only bullied once seriously and this was real since then I have changed most of everything else I have done was accidental bullying I’ve even prevented suicides I quit bullying in 4th grade.
Accidently looking at child porn, loli and beastiality I’ve only seen cartoon beastiality.
when this happened to me I was absolutely disgusted I’m not even sure what I looked at was child porn because I clicked off so fast. I might accidently watch child porn, loli, or beastiality and not even know I’m watching it for awhile and then figure out I am watching it, and immediately click off the video in digust when I find out, this is one of the reasons I quit porn the other reasons include religion and ability to be blackmailed. I never reported these websites due to the fact I forgot the names of the websites and the fact I don’t want my parents finding out I accidently have done these things, the TOS on these websites disallow these things yet they are still posted and not removed I this is another reason I quit. I quit porn in general in 8th grade. I also watched porn when I was underage I don’t know if this is bad or not.
Exploiting games this includes roblox exploits, csgo exploits, and hacks to increase currency in games I quit this 7th grade.
Piracy I have pirated pretty much every type of thing at some point and even was in 1 private tracker, I never distributed the content in the sense of copying unauthorized copy right material and sharing it but I have seeded since then I learned piracy was illegal and wrong and quit I know I pirated less than 100 things I quit this in the middle of 8th grade. Some of my piracy includes bypassing restrictions such as removing youtube ads without paying for premium.
Stealing when I was little I stole school supplies and took things out of my teachers “Prize bucket” when my teacher caught me and told me it was wrong I never stole again. I quit this after 1st grade. I also once found food in the hall that it seemed no one owned so I ate it when I got home I also once found a toy with someones name on it and took it but I did not know who it belonged to and they never reported it, it was a miniature figure about the size of a quarter. I tried hard to remember if I stole anymore and I can’t remember if I stole candy in 3rd 4th 5th or 6th grade. I know my teachers didn’t give out candy in 3rd or 4th grade. but I’m not 100% sure I took candy in 5th or 6th grade from a bucket this is someone I think I should include though.
Hacking my parents admin panel on router. I’m wondering if this was illegal since my parents gave me permission to hack it but didn’t expect me to be able to. I social engineered my parents into giving up the router password, I did this in 8th grade.
Scamming I used to scam using various social engineering techniques when I was in 7th grade I scammed game items and roblox exploiting software. I never infected the computers of the people I scammed or even accesed them I used social engineering to get license keys for roblox exploiting software and game items. I’ve only scammed one person with roblox exploiting software and never redeemed the license key out of guilt. I have however scammed people for roblox in-game items and went through with it.
One time I wanted to get some courses to learn a subject and asked my parents if they could buy it for me they said yes. So I took their credit card to buy the items however, they did not want me to take the credit card to buy the items and were mad at me, they later forgave me for doing this and said to next time ask for permission.
Unintentional harm to someone, I have caused unintentional harm to many people throughout my school years through me being immature and dumb. One time I accidently stabbed someone with a pencil not looking at the table where I was pressing my pencil down, I also accidently harmed someone through words, All the situations where I unintentionaly harm someone I apologize unless I miss the chance to apologize.
Unharmful pranks/messing with people or my pets. I sometimes mess with someone or do pranks in unharmful ways I end up making up for all these pranks by giving the person I messed with a treat or something nice.
I ran a modified windows and jailbroke and rooted my devices. This is a security risk and a breakage of the TOS. I have since removed the modified windows unjailbroke and unrooted. and wiped all the devices to factory settings. Some of the modified windows I ran supported piracy and I used jailbreak and root for piracy. Since 8th grade I have quit all these activites.
I ran a USB that contained tools for repairing a computer but it had pirated content on it. I have since erased this USB.
I once trolled people on the video games I am playing and the internet.
I once griefed minecraft players worlds.
I once cyber bullied but this is less actual cyber bullying linked with harrasment but more trolling and pulling pranks on people in the video game I’m playing.
I took halloween candy from my sibling without permission but I made sure they knew I took it.
I accidentally killed my goldfish when I was a kid by putting windex in the fish tank I was 5 or 6 years old.
I cheated on some schoolwork in elementary and middle school but I did not cheat on anything in high school and got a 4.0 GPA. I don’t know if this GPA is high enough to get hired by the NSA but I hope it is.
I used to swear, I still do but not much I usually only swear when I crack a joke.
I’ve killed bugs, insects and arachnids. Despite this not being something that will get my clearence denied, I regret it.
I once accidently found a security vulnerablility on my school website and didn’t report or misuse it I don’t regret not misusing but I do regret not reporting it. The school made all the logins in a guessable pattern so I would need to login into a students or teachers account the login pattern would be their first and last name and then their date of graduation of high school. And this was a repeated pattern If I wanted too I could have found out who the site adminstrator was and logged into his account, effectively taking over the website. I didn’t want to harm the school and even if I did want to harm the school I wouldn’t misuse this. The reason I found this was I was anaylzing my login, and the teachers sent several emails confirming my suspension of the vulnerability, they basically told you the login format in the email, I discovered this 7th-8th grade. It’s only a matter of time before someone malicious does discover this.
In elementary I’ve been written up for some of the things listed above but I’ve never been suspended or expelled. In middle school and high school I have’t been written up, suspened, or expelled.
I once cheated/hacked a kahoot game my teacher created they found out it was me and were mad.
I once researched IP address locater tools at school because one of my classmates said he found someones address using one of these tools, and I was curious how he did it. I got caught and blamed my classmate, I regret this.
I once searched 3D models for guns and knifes for my roblox game I was creating at school the teacher found out and was dissapointed I wasn’t doing schoolwork in school hours.
I once played games at school when I was supposed to be doing schoolwork and my teacher caught me and was mad.
I founded a ethical hacking organzation at school hiring the strongest people to work as spys and bodyguards and hiring the most smart people to work among the ranks of me in cyber security inside I created a video making it look like I have a actual company and Inside the video it includes a djay area, an awesome food area, and a 4th of july party. In the video I put a disclaimer saying "Warning you may not get put into our work at the company department instead you will get put in our work at home department. I asked people to send a email to me asking to be hired and invited them into my discord server for interview, this organzation was out of school and in school. The death of the organzation happened when people were going on my ethical hacking organzation chat fourms in school hours one of the kids in middle school math note I founded this organzation in 6th grade, so he was in advanced math and got caught by the teacher in the middle school, well somehow it got passed down to the teach department at my school and I got a a notice from my principal and teacher to shut the whole organazation down. They interogated me and asked what the organization was about and I covered myself saying “It’s for helping people to learn code and ethical hacking I did not expect them to be on it in school hours.” I totally expected them to be on it during school hours. We also had rival spy organzations that would be considered foregion countries since our group represented the USA. I cannot disclose what the organization was called as that may give up my personal information and indentity. Anyway people working for my organization got food and candy as pay. I do plan to form another organzation just on a global scale outside of school hours.
In 1st grade to 4th grade I convinced everyone at school I worked for google by using inspect element.
I’ve done a lot of things for glory and I definitely regret that because I have been profiled by all the kids and teachers as the “Computer Guy” which means I have to fix all their problems with computers or I am stupid with computers. 1-12 I was the “Computer Guy” and fixed problems “Even the tech department couldn’t” or did “magical things” with computers.
Up until 3rd grade I was definitely a troublemaker but have seen then improved.
^ This is everything I remember that I have done wrong even the small things.
These are all the things that have been on my mind that I have done wrong I am hoping somebody could answer If I could still get in the NSA as a intern I have not done the activites mentioned above for 5 years so far. I am also wondering if I could pass the tests they throw at me. I have done previous research on the polygraph exam and only recently found out doing so can disqualify you. I will not lie to the government or the NSA and will answer honestly for all questions, Anything not mentioned here I haven’t done. Help and answers are greatly appreciated! working at the NSA in cyber security has always been my dream job since I was a child and now I am ready to try and land the job. Since 8th grade I have really changed and improved as an overall person, I have to add I have never been caught for most of the serious stuff listed above and If I have been caught for it I listed how I was caught. and everything listed above I still deeply regret doing. I actively try to avoid fights and conflict and I have tried to mitigate all forms of blackmail that someone could use on me to increase my chance of getting into the NSA. Some things that are grey area for me is creating the organization listed above I don’t know if this was wrong or right but I can say I enjoyed the organization. Something that might improve my acceptence is how I am planning to create operating systems and have already thought of and began to start a project relating to the creation of operating systems. Thank you for reading this and have a great day!
Note: I updated the post so If you replied I ask you to please update your responses if you notice the change. I removed false information that I and replaced it with the information I remember correctly. This is my final edit so feel free to stop looking at this post if you’ve reread and updated your information.
I am also wondering what is likelihood I get hired like 15%, 25% 50%, 75%, Or 100%. Please make find a percentage you would rate me based on your experiences applying for a security clearence or a government organization. I’m okay with brutally honest statements as the things I have done in my past are very immature and stupid before you comment I would like to thank you for your comment. Brutally honest comments are usually the ones that help me the most.
I also have a few questions and I’m hoping somebody on this fourm has the knowledge to answer atleast one of them:
Would it be bad if I show the NSA this post when they are thinking about hiring me?
Is their anyone you know that got security clearence that has done worse things than me?
Do you know someone that got denied security clearence that has done similar things to me?
If you were a polygraph examinar, would you hire me?
Do you think that I am innocent enough to get hired?
Will I even have a chance to get hired?
What things that I have done should get revealed on my SF-86 or Polygraph exam?
Will I get disqualifed because I have done research on the polygraph exam and it’s effectiveness? I will be completely honest on the exam.
Would they hire someone else over me because they haven’t done as many immature and stupid things as me?
I’ve heard for many they ask if you ever have attraction to a minor, does this mean in the sense someone younger than you? In this case no. But I have been attracted to someone my own age or older that is under 18 when I was younger.
What do I need to do to pass the polygraph exam, SF-86, background checks, and psychological checks? The only two I am really worried about is the SF-86 and the polygraph exam.
It’d really be sad after spending my whole life preparing for this I get denied due to stupid and immature things I’ve done in my past. My parents don’t know I’ve done many of these things so maybe that will help the interview but if they knew they would be very disappointed in my mistakes. I’m not obligated to a position but I will try my best to make them hire me and not lie about my mistakes, mistakes are what makes me human and I learned from my mistakes. That being said I want someone to be totally honest with me and tell me what the dealbreaker would be if there is one. Even if I get denied I hope this post and the responses will help others going through a similar situation as me. It’s kind of nice to say everything I done wrong and I already feel better towards my chance of acceptance to the NSA.