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NSA CTO Patrick Dowd Moonlighting For Private Security Firm
First time accepted submitter un1nsp1red (2503532) writes Current NSA CTO Patrick Dowd has taken a part-time position with former-NSA director Keith Alexander's security firm IronNet Cybersecurity — while retaining his position as chief technology officer for the NSA. The Guardian states that 'Patrick Dowd continues to work as a senior NSA official while also working part time for Alexander's IronNet Cybersecurity, a firm reported to charge up to $1m a month for advising banks on protecting their data from hackers. It is exceedingly rare for a US official to be allowed to work for a private, for-profit company in a field intimately related to his or her public function.' Some may give Alexander a pass on the possible conflict of interests as he's now retired, but what about a current NSA official moonlighting for a private security firm?
God bless team America competitive workball. Go Eagles!
Conflict of interest is just what they do - ever wondered why there's a vast web of private contractors with points of failure (or patriotism) such as Snowden when it should really be a tight military operation? It's all about rewarding cronies. Retiring and getting millions funnelled into your pockets is far more lucrative than being promoted a rank.
...for the Italian corporatism of the USA to be so readily admitted. Usually the revolving door is something one passes through from time to time (although other items may pass underneath the door more regularly when everyone's pretending to look away), not repeatedly through the day.
He is obviously for sale, so consider it the least worst case.
... oh... never mind
Should not this old case get a mention too ? Snowden worked for him.
They might as well be Wall Street bankers.
Why is Snark Required?
It's been said by many, that in the US you need two jobs to make a living. I guess for many people it is X-Mart job during the day, Mac Burger job during the night, but this proves, that also the rich people need two jobs to make ends meet. I suppose this is an equal opportunity thing, so good?
Big red flag of: Our software is secure except for the prying eyes of the NSA....
I still wonder if Americans believe they're not a big fat communist scare of a country, yeah, yeah, we hear your anti-communist sayings, but really, aren't you just one? ( -__-)
We know undreds of millions went to the Clintons. We can only guess what Chaney/Bush got rewarded (but guess high), although we know how well their reign rewarded Halliburton stock.
I suspect O-Daddy may well make a cool billion. It willl come packaged in books and million dollar speeches, maybe, but it will come. A lot of banksters and bombers owe him a bundle...and he knows it.
Amazing how all the comments are merely mocking and resigned to the fact this is happening. This should outrage you, a public official at the top of the NSA has taken on another (very high) paying private section job. This guy should be fired. Policies should be put in place to stop these people from screwing the public purse. I expect he is paid substantially to reach that level, it's a very small leap from reselling your secrets to private companies to committing treason with foreign governments.
These people are just trying to make our world a safer place.
Why doesn't anyone think of the children?
Please pay them more money for a safer world!
This just eliminates the time frame Beltway insiders have typically had to wait while spinning through Washington's revolving doors.
It also serves to legitimize the fact we live in a corporatacracy.
Some days it's just not worth
chewing through my restraints.
With so much corporate money involved in US politics these days and the revolving door being such an integral part of the system, we should have expected this. After all, the difference between the revolving door and what Dowd is doing now -- being on both sides of the door at the same time -- is only a matter of perception. If nobody in power objects, then this will soon become normal.
If we want to fix things, then there's only one solution: Get money out of politics! Vermont and California are the first two States to call for an Article V convention to amend the Constitution to require all election campaigns to be publicly funded and end corporate personhood. It may seem radical to some, but this is the only way to reverse the series of disastrous Supreme Court decisions, ending with Citizens United and McCutcheon, that got us into this mess.
I find it hard to imagine with so many laws in the US that this is not only illegal but a felony?
You'll likely find that Alexanders employer is the NSA, and his company is just a way for them to distance the illegal stuff with a layer of corporate fluff.
Seriously, which bank would pay $1 million a month for advice on protecting their network given by a non-techie? No bank would, so if there's money going into his company at that level, its not for the claimed purpose. Alexander had a long history of flouting the laws of surveillance, and this company could be nothing more than a front for the NSA to continue its illegal stuff while cloaking it in non-accountability.
Of all of the things to be pissed about in DC, this isn't one of them IMO. This isn't the revolving door between regulator and the regulated industry. This is just some high level guy in government moonlighting in a mostly unrelated industry to make some coin on the side. This should be no more offensive to most than a GS14 or GS15 technical staffer taking out a contract with a big corporation on the side to make some extra bucks.
One thing the people crucifying Alexander and his company seem to forget is that if he's actually parlaying his background at the NSA into making the banks better at security, then that's a net gain for the American people. Be pissed all you want about what he did in the past, but the fact is for all we know he's also advising his clients on how to become more "NSA-proof" on the down low. I would be very surprised if he a bank offered him a lot of lucre to make them harder for intelligence services to breach that he'd suddenly turn that down and go squealing to Fort Meade now that his paycheck comes from the private sector.
And what are companies getting for their money, anyway? There's a new security break every week. They ought to spend \$1m/month on better security, not talking heads.
What the NSA does is illegal, any claims the Patriot act allows it is a lie.
Holder refuesed to comply with a Congressional sopenia, which is illegal and was not prosecuted.
The IRS illegally targeted individuals illegally, no one has been prosecuted and the FBI is refusing to do any additional investigation.
2000 guns were illegally shipped to Mexico by the ATF with 200 murders committed by them, no one prosecuted.
There has been a history over the last few years to not prosecute illegal activity by the executive branch. Many here on /. called anyone named if they wanted any of the above crimes prosecuted. Not sure why now you all care.
I'm no fan of Obama's presidency but this is just they way it is done in the D.C. cesspool. More evidence of why ethnic cleansing is not always a bad thing. In this instance, the ethnicities needing cleansing are career politicians and bureaucrats.
It's so much easier if you can start your bribe-financed alibi jobs while on the job.
The NSA is one of the largest organized crime subsidiaries of the U.S., specializing in blackmail. Close ties with Alexander's "that's nice private data that your company is working with. Wouldn't it be a shame if something bad happened with them?" business only make sense and give both the past and future jobs of the U.S. professional liars and blackmailers more weight.
At the speed the revolving door between crooks in- and outside of the government has been operating, it did not provide a noticeable airlock anyway. So breaking it open altogether is just being efficient.
There is no danger that any copies of the U.S. Constitution will be stolen from the building: they have been safely locked away in a secret prison.
that you can do other jobs on the side. I have zero free time with my job... but then I'm not the CTO of NSA so I am expected to perform.
I would think that the CTO of the NSA is a full time job. I bet the taxpayers are paying him a full time salary. If he runs out of things to do have him sweep the floors or something. I'm a taxpayer and I demand full time work when a full time position is paid for with tax dollars.
The only way the NSA would allow this to happen is if it serves a government purpose -- there's no benefit for them to allow him to moonlight otherwise. The banks are being infiltrated by foreign hackers, and the NSA can't just go to them and tell them that. By having him work at this security company, he can strengthen their systems using classified info without revealing the exact details.
"Secret budgets, no oversight, no accountability to any external body.Ã
Sounds like the local po-po.
Do unto them as they do unto you.
Both Alexander and Dowd can be targeted for extermination under current US Federal National Security laws.
A befitting end to these worms.
I find it hard to imagine with so many laws in the US that this is not only illegal but a felony?
America isn't Europe.
So does that make us a Commi-Fascist regime? We seem to have the 'token handouts' to the public to make us just like the USSR, so :)
If this is legal, I don't know how. I've spent decades working in Washington, DC and heard of all kinds of scams. If he were just an advisory consultant, OK. But he's the CTO, who has enormous power in specifying technologies, affecting contract decisions, etc. Even if this is somehow legal, it's by the flimsiest of rationales and the lawyer who wrote it should be investigated.
Surely the CTO needed the permission of his organisation (and therefore the US government) to have a second job (i.e. employment contracts usually require this). Who granted this permission and why aren't they being made to explain this clear conflict of interest in public to a committee of democratically-elected officials? Oh right, it's the NSA...