Leadership Breakfast with GEN Paul M. Nakasone, USA

On Friday, December 8, nearly 250 intelligence and national security colleagues came out for INSA's final in-person event of the calendar year, a Leadership Breakfast with GEN Paul M. Nakasone, USA, Commander, U.S. Cyber Command and Director, NSA/Chief, CSS. 

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In a moderated discussion with INSA Chairwoman Letitia A. Long, GEN Nakasone kicked off the conversation by discussing NSA/CYBERCOM's focus for FY24. Some of his main points included competition with China and Russia as well as the protection of American civil liberties and privacy regarding activities in the cyber domain. He then discussed the importance of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and how it must be reauthorized given its vital role in intelligence operations. He also provided an update on the newly announced AI security center at NSA and how the center will shape NSA’s responsibilities in ensuring AI tools remain secure. NSA plans to carry out all these efforts by increasing its workforce with 3,000 new employees. GEN Nakasone emphasized the importance of how the employees are the center of NSA’s mission.  

Continuing the conversation, GEN Nakasone spoke on the Chinese government in detail, explaining the threat it poses to the U.S. He highlighted how more resources have been moved to monitoring adversaries to include China, and that the Indo-Pacific region has become pivotal to U.S strategic operations. He shared thoughts on NSA rivaling the PRC’s graduation rates in cyber by creating programs in K-12 to teach cyber and related fields and emphasized the importance of partnerships with industry and academia to help further NSA/CYBERCOM mission.

Finally, Ms. Long asked GEN Nakasone to reflect on his career both in the Army and lessons learned from his tenure at NSA/USCYBERCOM. He stated the world today is much different even from five years ago. He stressed the necessity of having a dynamic approach to national security and reemphasized how people must be placed at the center of all operations and restated the importance of public-private partnerships to better advance the national security mission.