Do you have $600,000 a month to burn? Do you hate children or the homeless too much to use it to help them? Do you like to give money to former government goods? If you answered yes to all three I have a deal for you. Keith Alexander, the former head of the National Security Agency (NSA), has a cybersecurity consulting company called IronNet Cybersecurity Incorporated:
Alexander offered to provide advice to Sifma for $1 million a month, according to two people briefed on the talks. The asking price later dropped to $600,000, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the negotiation was private.
$600,000 a month to get security advice from a man who couldn’t stop one consultant from walking off with his agency’s secrets on a thumb driver. Sounds like a good bargain to me!
But Keith’s position is an example of an all too common phenomenon among former government goons. After leaving his post with the state he returns to the private sector to use the knowledge and contacts to rake in massive amounts of cash. It’s why threats to dismiss state goons is so ineffective. They know once they are kicked out of their position they can use the contacts they made while working for the state to become wealthy.