The news wires reported General Keith Alexander moved in to the private sector, and offering his services to finance companies for a million dollars a month. This is the person that took control as the director of the National Security Agency on August 1, 2005 and left in October 2013 (Wikipedia). Remember, that was after the Edward Snowden leaks came out.
Which really leads one to wonder were those really leaks, or was that a case of we know this is compromised lets make it public knowledge so we can hide the real data. Here is an interesting thought, is Snowden really still working for the U.S. Government?
If you’ve read the Cryptonomicon or seen the Sherlock episode “A Scandal in Belgravia“, you probably know what I mean. For those that need a quick refresher – let assets of lower value go, to hide the assets of higher value. Blow up planes with dead people on them, instead of letting real passenger jets get blown up. Let a German U-Boat sink a freighter or get past the blockade to keep them from realizing that the codes are broken.
The C-Levels at banks should be asking some hard questions if Gen. Alexander is showing up offering them service. Like what really happened on the Snowden watch. How does that failure make his people qualified for the private sector’s needs? Yes while Gen. Alexander may have some Government related attack sources, we already have that in the private sector with Infragard, and the different breach reports.
I think Kaspersky perfected this method. From hacker for Russian organized crime to the owner of one of the largest AV companies in the world. Why is it that Kaspersky can put out signatures for viruses that aren’t in the wild yet? Maybe they are creating the viruses.
I wonder that too sometimes, about not being in the wild. But it could be he’s got people doing intel on the forums too. Or buys them on the underground and then defends.
The diff here, is the original skill though. I think K had some, A what is he worth other than his stars?