Two Hats are Better than One

Speaking at a cyber summit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Army Gen. Keith Alexander, who as National Security Agency director is also US Cyber Command boss, said his position must remain “dual-hatted” in order to ensure “unity of effort” between the two organizations. Efforts to break up the leadership of NSA and CYBERCOM would result in the “two teams not working together,” he said. In addition, this could lead to duplication of effort and feuds over resources and ownership, he said. As CYBERCOM chief, Alexander is responsible for coordinating and conducting operations and defense of Defense Department networks. In his NSA role, he oversees the protection of national security information systems, among his duties. “Leveraging what we have at NSA—all the technical talent and assets—is absolutely in the best interest of this country,” said Alexander. “We treat [NSA and CYBERCOM] as one team, not two, and that’s what our nation needs,” he said during the Oct. 8 event.