“How much?!!”
That was a fairly universal reaction when we found out last week that former National Security Agency Chief, General Keith “Haystack” Alexander, would earn $600,000 a month giving cybersecurity advice to the Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association.
Now why would anyone pay a guy $7.2 million a year whose strategy for success is to mindlessly “collect it all?”
What information might the architect of the Panopticon be willing to share with the banking industry if the price is right?
Or as Recode.net put it: For Another Million I’ll Show You the Back Door We Put in Your Router.
Haystack’s just cashing in, right? No different than any number of public servants. After all, he’s not peddling classified information is he?
Congressman Alan Grayson is not so sure.
Disclosing or misusing classified information for profit is, as Mr. Alexander well knows, a felony. 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 that he acquired in his former position, he literally would have nothing to offer to you.
Grayson has written a letter to the head of SIFMA asking to provide all information related to its dealings with Alexander
so that Congress can verify whether or not he is selling military and cybersecurity secrets to the financial services industry for personal gain.
For more on Haystack’s business model, see Marcy Wheeler’s account here, which contains a link to Grayson’s letter, and an earlier post here.