SAN FRANCISCO — Four former National Security Agency directors shared varying concerns about a lack of earnest and widespread response to growing threats in cyberspace during a discussion at the RSAC 2026 Conference on Tuesday.
Accelerating threats posed by artificial intelligence, China and cybercriminals at large are testing the country’s resolve and determination to foster meaningful public-private collaboration, the former commanders of U.S. Cyber Command said.
While the four-star military officials remain confident in the country’s resources and people committed to defending the nation from cyberattacks, they voiced unease about challenges that could upend technological dominance and diminish a collective response to serious intrusions.
“I think we’ve become numb to it,” retired Gen. Paul Nakasone said. “We continue to see these different intrusions, and intrusions have gotten to a size that the scale is just incredible to me.”
The nation and industry aren’t keeping up with adversaries amid a brain drain across the U.S. government, the founding director of Vanderbilt University’s Institute of National Security said.
“We’ve lost ground with regards to our outreach to the private sector” within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative and NSA’s Cybersecurity Collaboration Center, Nakasone said.
Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Mike Rogers also criticized the U.S. government for areas of inaction and decay. “I see a government that’s unwilling to expend political capital to really drive fundamental change in cyber, and it’s a reflection of the fact that politically we are so divided, and as a society we are so divided,” he said.
“We’re the largest economy in the world. We don’t have a single federal privacy framework. We don’t have a single major piece of cyber legislation,” Rogers added. “That frustrates the hell out of me.”
Retired Gen. Keith Alexander, the first chief of U.S. Cyber Command, said the key players remain committed and are working as hard as ever to combat cyber threats. Yet, he’s concerned about what the nation is doing to confront China and all the ways it could inflict harm, particularly in the realm of AI.
“We will be challenged in this area. We will fight in this area, and it will be both the government and you all helping to protect this country to ensure that we live through it,” Alexander said.
The U.S. government’s collaborative efforts with private companies provides an incredible intelligence advantage, said retired Gen. Tim Haugh. But, he warned, China has replicated similar capabilities and pre-positioned itself inside critical infrastructure networks.
Under his leadership, Haugh said he tried to encourage debate among policymakers to consider more offensive responses to China’s malicious cyber activities, particularly actions that might be equivalent to effects that would occur in armed conflict.
Frustration and mounting concern was palpable as the former NSA and U.S. Cyber Command bosses held court on stage together for the first time this week.
“We’re starting to accept this, in some ways, as the price of living in the digital age. And we have not yet had a level of trauma that has driven fundamental behavioral change,” Rogers said. “We haven’t had thousands die. I hope we never do, don’t get me wrong, but it seems like we just haven’t had a level of pain that’s fundamentally shifted the calculus.”
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