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Former NSA Chief Warned Against Selling NSA Secrets
An anonymous reader writes Former NSA Chief General Keith Alexander has apparently started his own cybersecurity consulting firm, IronNet Cybersecurity, and approached the banking industry pitching his company's suite of services. Word from Wired indicates that his services cost $1 million per month with a special discount asking price of $600,000 per month. Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) expressed concern about General Alexander's activities to the banking industry, stating, "I question how Mr. Alexander can provide any of the services he is offering unless he discloses or misuses classified information, including extremely sensitive sources and methods....Without the classified information he acquired in his former position, he literally would have nothing to offer to you." (PDF) The congressman from the House of Representatives reminds the bankers (and General Alexander, should he be listening) that selling top secret information is a federal offense.
I don't know if I'd brag about my tenure there in the context of selling security consulting.
.. 600k? .. I'll take two, because that's how we roll with government spending.
The whole Snowden affair demonstrated that they still managed some epic fails.
But sure
THe banking industry is probably wanting a step up in security, while the NSA under Alexander had horrible internal security. Alexander's forte seems to be using brute force to break the security of others, not actually keeping an organization secure.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
So the poor general can't participate in the usual dance of former Washington insiders who use cronyism and connections to enrich themselves after 'serving' in government?
There should be a name for that... like 401(c)... where c stands for crony capitalism.
http://www.masturbateforpeace.com/
"Without the classified information he acquired in his former position, he literally would have nothing to offer to you."
Oh brother. A former work colleague saying "You'd be nothing without us!"
It's not like a person exists outside of their job, or can ever learn new things, right?
Snowden didn't reveal NSA secrets for his personal profit.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
he'll give it to you for free .. you can put up the $1 Million towards wikileaks as donation ..
This smacks of the same crap Id is trying to pull off on Carmack (http://popcultureblog.dallasnews.com/2014/05/zenimax-and-id-software-have-filed-a-lawsuit-against-oculus-vr-and-dallas-based-john-carmack-is-in-the-middle.html/). Apparently employers think they own any knowledge an employee gains while on the job. Sure, secrets are secrets. But is *everything* they learned on the job is a secret?
He needs to hire people who have the skills and experience addressing specific vulnerabilities. Ideally those people got that outside of TS work. He is the rainmaker that opens doors.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
One day soon, "Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL)" will be a lobbyist. Welcome to revolving-door government, Congressman.
Am I confused, or is this the same amoral sack of shit who lied to Congress with a straight face about NSA activities???
The congressman from the House of Representatives reminds the bankers (and Edward Snowden, should he be listening) that selling top secret information is a federal offense.
FTFY.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Yup. He had no money to bargain with for a sweeter deal.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
protocals. They need to adhere to the Federal Enterprise Architecture Data Reference Model.
That is obviously misnamed, Data and Reference need to be reversed, so it's the "Federal Enterprise Architecture Reference Data Model", or to shorten it the "FEAR Data Model".
On how guilty the ones accusing you of treason actually are, IMHO.
Who do you think is the traitor here, Snowden?
I certainly don't think so, and neither do a bunch of other people. We all get to vote this fall. :)
I realize all the good jobs are in the Govt; around here they get handed down from generation to generation, lol.
That doesn't make me any more supportive of the whole Gestapo-ization of America; I think that's a bad thing, personally.
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
If Jesus was so in favor of the poor, why did he spend his considerable income building a large, ornate church in Salt Lake City?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
It is ok if a government official sells state secrets, or gives preferential treatment to industry for money. This is the reason why they get high power government jobs n the first place. Look at the FCC, for instance. Their chairman is directly owned by industry. It is only plebs like Snowden that get prosecuted.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
I could buy some needy obstetrician a malpractice policy for that amount.
Hmmm. The Director of the NSA might encounter all sorts of information about the Big Money Boys that they would rather not be known generally. Would that information necessarily be classified? But whether or not it is, being paid NOT to disclose it would surely not be a violation of security. Wall Streeters might regard a million a month mighty cheap insurance...
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
This venture, it seems to me, is just a way to legitimize the payback for services he has already rendered while he was at the NSA. His 'clients' already know who they are, and they will expect to get nothing more concrete for their million per month than his continuing influence (or perhaps silence) in certain matters.
It seems to me that the entire purpose of any secret government agency is to benefit the secret government agency.
Michael Moore is a self-taught movie maker. His movie about U.S. government corruption in secret agencies, Fahrenheit 9/11, made $222,446,882. It's not like extreme U.S. government corruption is unknown.
There is a HUGE conflict of interest, and the U.S. government seems to have no influential methods of dealing with conflicts of interest. If there is security, people who work for the NSA are less likely to be promoted, and may lose their jobs. That is a powerful reason for NSA employees and management, and other secret U.S. government agencies, to create more insecurity. Since they work entirely in secret, no one can stop them.
U.S. government policies allow many secret agencies. I find it odd that news stories assume that, other than doing things that almost no citizens want, the secret agencies are otherwise well-managed. Numerous examples show that they aren't. For example, Edward Snowden, an employee of an NSA sub-contractor, was able to walk away with all the data.
To me, it is also odd that news stories assume that the NSA works to improve security of the U.S. and U.S. citizens. For example, the book House of Bush, House of Saud explains that the Bush and Cheney families worked for the Saudis, who paid them billions for their help. The U.S. taxpayer paid for the arms, military presence, and violence that supposedly was free security for the Saudi government, but actually was, as Saudi acquaintances I met in a gym said long before the 9/11 attack, Saudi government oppression of the Saudi people.
Why does the NSA record phone calls? Is it because learning about some of those calls makes money for someone in control? Investment information, perhaps?
The U.S. government's war in Iraq is now being called a "mistake". For example, Hans Blix: Iraq War was a terrible mistake and violation of U.N. charter. It wasn't a "mistake", other articles say, it was deliberate deception. For example, Stop Calling the Iraq War a 'Mistake'.
NSA = No Sales for America. The NSA is a powerful advertisement that anything complicated made by a U.S. manufacturer may have intentional defects or surveillance methods.
Where did he conduct perjury? I don't think he did. He LIED plenty but that is not a crime. Contempt of Congress etc? Well, something they seem to love to do is to NOT swear in these officials "out of respect" so while you may testify to congress under oath and they may require you to do so, these people are allowed to skip the disrespectful procedure. (Besides they feel there are legitimate public lies these officials have to make from time to time... which they could simply decline or put it off for the private session... which again, they probably don't do under oath.)
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only the exact demarcation of its extent. If I know the NSA has a secret underground mole robot tapping in to buried data lines, I'm not giving away a national secret if I tell my client, "Y'know, lets run our data lines on phone poles," so long as I don't tell them exactly why I like that idea.
The difference between Manning and this prick is that this prick is making a profit out of selling the secrets.
He didn't. That was his CEO and you bet that he's going to get pissed come review time.
There's a reason most US churches teaches you to fear the lord. They have reason to fear him. If you made a religion of peace, harmony and compassion and some people take it and turn it in a religion of hatred, control and bigotry, would you be pissed?
Now imagine how pissed you'd be if you were allmighty.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
So the Congress believes there's no art or science to computer security besides classified information? This is like saying that any soldier who ever went on a classified mission can never market to an employer that he has military experience. This is ludicrous.