Re-Evaluating Cyber Security for 2019

Posted: December 17th, 2018

By Rick Ledgett

Rick Ledgett served as the Deputy Director of the National Security Agency from January 2014 until his retirement in April 2017, culminating a nearly 40-year career in cryptology at NSA and in the U.S. Army. He previously led the Media Leaks Task Force, the Agency’s response to the Snowden leaks. He was the first National Intelligence Manager for Cyber at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and he directed the NSA’s 24/7 cyber threat operations center.

2018 was a rough year for customers and companies impacted by cyber breaches. Businesses from Under Armour to Facebook to Marriott were targeted by hackers, leaving the data of hundreds of millions of customers exposed this year. According to Cipher Brief experts, 2019 isn’t likely to be much better and The Poneman Institute estimates that the global cost of a data breach rose 6.4% in 2018, to $3.86m.

Cipher Brief Expert and former Deputy Director of the NSA, Rick Ledgett spent a career in government that included leading the NSA’s Media Leaks Task Force from June 2013 to January 2014, just as the NSA was dealing with a particularly damaging insider threat named Edward Snowden.

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