Matt Cutts and the National Security Agency Matt Cutts had his resume posted at in 2002 I have a copy It says January 1992 August 1994 Department of Defense 9800 Savage Road Ft George G Meade MD 20755 6000 Co operative education student Completed four work tours over a year total with the National Security Agency During my first tour I produced a sizable report on UNIX security which resulted in a 500 Special Performance Cash Award On other tours I worked on natural language processing tools telecommunications and hardware design of an encryption chip I said on my site that he has a Top Secret clearance In 2006 Matt Cutts pointed out that his clearance has expired I changed my references to past tense once I learned of his comment It remains true that he HAD a Top Secret clearance You don t work on encryption chips at the NSA unless you have a security clearance