In an interview with former National Security Agency Director General Keith Alexander, Foreign Policy's Shane Harris learned that he plans to file "at least" nine patent applications, and possibly more related to technology for detecting network intruders
Keith left his government post in early 2014 and founded a private cybersecurity company, IronNet, with unnamed business partners. Keith said his partners helped him create a “unique” method for detecting hackers and he plans to patent it. Of course, Keith himself had unlimited access to classified security operations from 2005, when he took charge of the NSA, until 2014, when he retired.
Since starting IronNet, Keith has been consulting for large corporations, particularly in the financial services industry, earning fees of up to $1 million a month. This astronomical sum was enough for a federal agent to suggest that Keith might be disclosing or misusing confidential information.
