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.
-
Many of the players on one Ukrainian professional women's soccer team have experienced hardships of war, but they're still watching the Women's World Cup and cheering on their favorite players.
-
FBI agents have arrested a man suspected to be involved in the leak of classified documents related to the war in Ukraine and the case is already raising questions about access to sensitive material.
-
The trauma caused by hoax shooting calls is sometimes amplified by social media, as bad actors take advantage of the moment to spread misinformation.
-
The prime minister says about 70 percent of services have been restored, but officials have not commented on a cause or whether ransom was paid. Nor did they respond to NPR's requests for comment. -
The scandal involving the "King of Crypto" and the crash of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX continues to unfold. Former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is under investigation for financial crimes.
-
As schools across the U.S. are targeted by false calls about active shooters, NPR has found evidence that a similar scheme took place in the spring.
-
The war in Ukraine has put a spotlight on NATO. For alliance members, an attack on one is considered an attack on all. But those obligations are less clear in the cyber sphere.
-
The war in Ukraine inspired hackers to steal reams of sensitive data from inside Russia. A transparency group wants to publicize that information without actively participating in the conflict.
-
Former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who shepherded Estonia into the EU and NATO in the early 2000s, hopes the world is finally waking up to the dangers Russia poses.
-
On the border with Russia, the Estonian town of Narva has strong cultural and linguistic ties to Russia. That makes it a target of Russian propaganda — something Estonians are trying to combat.
