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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Small businesses paid millions to cybercriminals last year to unlock their files. That's why experts released a new blueprint with advice on how to defend against and recover from ransomware attacks.
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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.
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In an interview, Tom Burt, Microsoft's head of customer security and trust, discusses the company's insights about the cyberwar between Russia and Ukraine. -
Former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves wasn't surprised Russia invaded Ukraine. In an interview on his family's farm, he says he hopes the world is waking up to the dangers Russia poses.
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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.
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Microsoft's global ubiquity gives its cybersecurity experts a unique window into the Russian cyberwar against Ukraine. The software giant is involved in both monitoring and combatting attacks.
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On the border with Russia, the Estonian town of Narva has strong cultural and linguistic ties with Russia. That makes it a target of Russian disinformation; something Estonians are trying to combat.
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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.
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Estonia is host to one of the world's largest annual interactive cybersecurity drills. Russia is always considered the main threat, but this year, the war in Ukraine has only added to the stakes.
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In 2007, Russia launched the first nation-on-nation cyberattack against Estonia. Now, the lessons learned from "Web War I" are being used in the cyberdefense of Ukraine.
