Data and data protections are critically important for governments and the private sectors alike – but their roles in enforcing data protection can be very different. To explore further, our CTO, Dr. Kurt Rohloff, spoke to ADM Michael Rogers, USN (ret.), former commander of the United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and chief of the Central Security Service (CSS).
“For much of my career of 37 years, I’ve been very focused on cyber security in particular,” Adm. Rogers noted. “How do we defend systems, how do you defend data? How do you ensure privacy compliance with federal and state and international regulations?”
Adm. Rogers added that industry and government needs for privacy enhancing technologies to enable protected data collaboration in general, and Duality’s products for privacy-protected data collaboration in particular, address these needs, and this is why he joined the Duality Technologies Advisory Board.
“When I was in the government, I was focused on cyber and cybersecurity being a significant portion of the duties of [government] organizations,” he said. “One of the takeaways from that experience — [when] I was trying to defend government, particularly [Department of Defense] DOD networks and data, as well as our weapons systems and [prevent] unauthorized access to our platforms – I quickly came to the conclusion that, number one, the private sector is going to be core in our the government’s ability to do that.”
“It doesn’t matter whether the organization is government or private sector,” Adm. Rogers noted, “literally almost everyone in the world is using commercially based solutions to both operate and defend their networks as well as maximize the value of their data.”
Regarding his interest in data protection coming from private sector organizations such as Duality, Adm. Rogers shared that he “would spend a lot of time with the private sector trying to look at opportunities, tools, capabilities, insights that we could use in the Department of Defense from a cybersecurity perspective. And so as I transitioned from government to the private sector, I was very interested in how I could get involved in those mission areas, but do it now for the private sector.”
Adm. Rogers stressed the importance of privacy-protected data collaboration to derive value from data. “This is a problem set that does not know geographic bounds. […] I was always struck that cyber doesn’t recognize boundaries […] We also have to come up with solutions that allow us to enable productivity across nations and wide geographic dispersions.”
Adm. Rogers said that “clearly technology is going to be an important component of the solution, because technology gives you increased confidence in the solution and technology lets you scale.”
When asked why he chose to become an advisor to Duality, Adm. Rogers responded that “the first thing was the company’s DNA, its legacy.” “When I saw Duality, I thought [..] the technical approach I saw was really interesting.” He further added that “what really tipped the balance for me was the people.”
Watch the full interview below.
