NSA Director Paul Nakasone had an awkward chat with Ted Koppel

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.cyberscoop.com/paul-nakasone-ted-koppel-interview-iccs-2019-fordham-university/

By Jeff Stone
CYBERSCOOP
July 23, 2019

Well, that was weird.

When Gen. Paul Nakasone appeared Tuesday at the International Conference on 
Cybersecurity at Fordham University, he probably expected to hear questions 
about the new reorganization at the National Security Agency, or about the U.S. 
government’s ability to safeguard what’s expected to be one of the most 
contentious elections in recent memory amid historic levels of foreign 
meddling.

It was not to be.

Nakasone spent roughly an hour politely engaging Ted Koppel, the longtime 
broadcast journalist and author of a 2015 book on cybersecurity, in a bizarre 
conversation that alternated between Koppel questioning the decorated NSA 
director about the agency’s basic responsibilities, and whether Nakasone 
struggled with fake news from “tens of thousands” of “self-appointed 
journalists.”

The “fireside chat” was perhaps the most widely anticipated presentation 
scheduled at ICCS, a regular gathering of some of the most powerful officials 
from the U.S. intelligence community. Koppel set the tone for the hourlong 
discussion with a seven-minute story about a World War II bombing campaign 
carried out by the German Luftwaffe that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of 
civilians. The bombings, by Koppel’s description, resulted in an eventual 
understanding between the United States and the Soviet Union that similar 
attacks, carried out with nuclear weapons, could result in mutually assured 
destruction.

“I would say both the United States and the Soviet Union floundered in creating 
that strategy. We did silly things like teaching our children to duck under 
their desks in their schools, or creating bomb shelters. Some of them still 
exist today, stocked with crackers and water,” Koppel said. “We developed plans 
to evacuate massive cities. All totally pointless.”

[...]

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