NSA director Admiral Michael Rogers testified before a Senate committee on Thursday, and that testimony is being rebroadcast on C-Span as I write. Watch the video here.
Admiral Rogers has a high admiration of his employees. In fact he says they're better than workers outside of government. Rudy Takala at Washingtonexaminer.com notes this: NSA chief: Feds are better at cyber than private sector. Here's an excerpt:
The National Security Agency is capable of doing a better job at cybersecurity than companies in the private sector, the agency's head said on Thursday, because its employees have a culture that gives them a greater sense of purpose.
"It's the sense of serving something bigger than yourself. That's the advantage that we have. That's not something you can easily replicate on the outside," said Adm. Michael Rogers, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the NSA. "It's that sense of mission, that sense of purpose, that ethos of culture and compliance, I think, that is our greatest advantage."
Is this true in the present atmosphere? There's that pesky theory about Public Choice which holds that government employees are motivated by their own best interests. That implies they may put their own interests ahead of the government interest. We certainly saw that happen at the IRS, the VA, and countless other agencies where government workers put service to the country at a pretty low priority.
So can we believe Admiral Rogers. I want to. I really do.
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