Hacking the Human Element of Code

By Chris Inglis

Chris Inglis served as the first National Cyber Director where he was responsible for coordinating federal agency work on cyber and overseeing the US' digital defense strategy. Inglis retired from the Department of Defense in January 2014 after more than 41 years of federal service, including 28 years at NSA and seven and a half years as its senior civilian and Deputy Director. Mr. Inglis’ military career includes over 30 years of service in the U.S. Air Force from which he retired as a Brigadier General in 2006.

Following a U.S. government-wide ban last month and recent news reports alleging that Kaspersky Lab enabled Russian intelligence to swipe highly classified NSA material from an employee’s private computer, questions have begun to swirl regarding the Moscow-based company’s relationship with the Kremlin. The Cipher Brief’s Levi Maxey spoke with Chris Inglis, the former Deputy Director of the NSA, about how Russian hackers could have utilized Kaspersky and why distrust in the company is merely one part of a much larger discussion on the cyber espionage threat emanating from an authoritarian Russia.

The Cipher Brief: What are some of the possible ways that Russian intelligence could have been alerted to Kaspersky identifying classified material on an NSA contractor’s computer?

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