Bloomberg has reported that at least 11 personnel connected to the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command died during the past fiscal year, drawing private scrutiny from Congress and the White House.
The deaths involved military personnel, civilian employees and contractors, according to the reporting. Ten occurred near Fort Meade, Maryland, the headquarters of both agencies, and one occurred near an NSA facility in Georgia. Bloomberg reported a cluster of five deaths between early June and early July. Officials have not identified a single explanation for the deaths.
Former intelligence executive Harry Coker Jr. suggested that the stress of the work may have pushed some of the personnel to take their own lives. "The pace of operations right now at both NSA and Cyber Command can be overwhelming," Coker said. "There is a lot of stress that a lot of us overlook because we think cyber is away from the front," he said. "Physically that's accurate but intellectually and emotionally it's inaccurate."
Agency leaders have told lawmakers that individual cases involved varying personal and financial circumstances. Those factors provide context but do not establish the cause of any individual death.
The family of Technical Sergeant Kevin Stallings has asked for answers after he missed work on June 18 and, the family said, authorities did not check his apartment until June 22. "It absolutely infuriates me," Stallings' brother Adam said. "Why did you not check on my brother?" His father, James Stallings II, called the delay "a dereliction of duty."
The deaths have prompted new safeguards. Gen. Joshua Rudd has required eight uninterrupted hours of rest per day and restricted shifts longer than 12 consecutive hours without authorization. The agencies have also expanded access to healthcare resources and added clinical and psychological support.
