Keith Alexander Wants $1 Million Per Month For 'Cybersecurity' Consulting

from the hence-the-FUD dept

In May, we wrote about how ridiculous it was that former NSA boss Keith "collect it all" Alexander was now launching a cybersecurity consulting firm. After all, it's difficult to think of anyone who has done so much to undermine cybersecurity as Keith Alexander. Now Bloomberg is reporting that he's offering his "services" for the cut-rate price of $1 million per month. Yes, I'll repeat that:

Keith Alexander wants banks and other companies to pay him $1 million per month to help them with their "cybersecurity." At that price, I'd hope that he's just selling them the location of the backdoors he ordered to be placed in all of their hardware and software. And idiotic banks are apparently willing to pay, rather than going with the much, much cheaper option of hiring an actual security expert:

Joining a crowded field of cyber-consultants, the former National Security Agency chief is pitching his services for as much as $1 million a month. The audience is receptive: Under pressure from regulators, lawmakers and their customers, financial firms are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into barriers against digital assaults.

Either way, given that Alexander stands to profit quite nicely from his own undermining of cybersecurity, it's obviously no wonder at all that he's spent the past month exaggerating the "threat" of what's out there, often taking it to ridiculous levels.

While Alexander is doing the exact same thing as his predecessors, pay attention to the various media coverage of Alexander in the coming months and years. He's going to appear on TV and in newspapers and magazines a lot. And he will frequently be quoted spewing FUD about threats and how dangerous it is out there. And in almost none of those cases will any of the press covering him highlight the fact that Alexander stands to profit massively from keeping big banks and other companies scared shitless, so they hire him for $1 million a month to "protect" them from this threat that he both helped to create... and is now overhyping.

Filed Under: banks, consulting, cybersecurity, fud, keith alexander, nsa, surveillance

Would You Hire Former NSA Boss Keith Alexander For Cybersecurity Consulting?

from the he-knows-where-the-holes-he-buried-are dept

It is, of course, no surprise that former NSA boss Keith Alexander is now setting out a shingle for consulting work in the private sector. While we'd assumed he'd latch on with something like the Chertoff Group, it appears that he's setting up his own consulting firm in which he'll help "financial institutions looking to address cybersecurity threats." Considering this is the guy who, just days earlier, was talking about why the NSA harmed internet cybersecurity, it kind of makes you wonder if he's the person you'd really trust with any sort of cybersecurity consulting. Well, unless, as Marcy Wheeler has suggested, his sales pitch is "I know where all the holes I've left in the internet are." Still, if you were a financial institution, would you rather hire someone who's spent their career trying to make the internet safer... or the guy who worked hard to make it less secure?

Filed Under: consulting, cybersecurity, financial institutions, keith alexander, nsa, surveillance, trust