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View Full Version : Ex-CIA & NSA veterans talking @ Oxford University



davidbfpo
05-19-2015, 08:45 PM
The Humanitas Programme @ Oxford invited ex-NSA Director Michael Hayden and ex-CIA DDI John McLaughlin to speak in 2014 and 2015. Podcasts of their lectures are on:http://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/humanitas/intelligence-studies#quicktabs-theme_term_quicktab=4

I attended one of John's lectures and a seminar - even if he retired in 2004 he made many pertinent remarks.

These are on cyber:
1. ‘Terrorist use of the magic of cyber has not been seen till very recently. Too sophisticated for them’. (Note no example was given for recent cyber use). We are worried about the appeal of ISIS for young people who may have such skills. There has been ‘no big cyber attack, no cyber Pearl harbour’ even if Symantec have estimated US business has lost US$250 billion. 2. ‘Until there is a cyber Pearl Harbour we will not have a coherent cyber policy. Old fixes do not apply, e.g. the SALT inspection regime. It’s all theoretical so far, except for attacks on Estonia and Georgia’.Attached are my partial notes for the first lecture.