Ex-NSA leaders say Americans are becoming ‘numb’ to cyber threats

SAN FRANCISCO — American society is becoming increasingly apathetic to major cyberattacks, and the U.S. has still not achieved a hardline strategy to deter foreign adversaries and their hacker operatives, former NSA and Cyber Command leaders said Tuesday.

“I think we’ve become numb to it,” said retired Gen. Paul Nakasone, who served as director of Cyber Command and NSA from 2018 to 2024. He was joined on stage at an RSAC Conference discussion with other retired officials who held the dual-hatted role over the years, including Gen. Keith Alexander, Adm. Mike Rogers and, most recently, Gen. Tim Haugh.

“I think we continue to see these different intrusions, and intrusions have gotten to a size that the scale is just incredible to me” Nakasone said. “And I think that we are out of balance in terms of being able to keep up with the adversary, whether or not it’s ransomware, whether or not it’s deepfakes, whether or not it’s the brain drain within our government.”

“I think for society, we are just becoming so numb to this,” said Rogers. “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.”

The sobering remarks underscore a growing concern among former U.S. cyber leaders that the steady drumbeat of high-impact cyber intrusions has failed to galvanize a proportional policy or societal response.

Recent incidents highlight that threat picture, from China-linked hackers like Volt Typhoon embedding in U.S. critical infrastructure systems and Salt Typhoon targeting global telecom networks for espionage, to ongoing disruptions at home, including a March breach at medical device maker Stryker that’s been tied to a pro-Iran hacker gang.

“I would definitely say we have not achieved deterrence,” Rogers said. “I see a private sector, network owners, that are very energized and focused. 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.”

Alexander reinforced the same worry over a lack of national readiness against major cyber players. 

“What I’m concerned about is what we’re doing as a nation to think about what China could do to hurt us,” he said.

The Trump White House has released a long-anticipated national cyber strategy, which includes a pillar focused on reshaping the behavior of cyber adversaries to create incentives to not target U.S. networks. Details of that effort remain to be seen, though the private sector is expected to play a major part.