Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Thought Leadership

Rear Admiral Bill Leigher has provided some much needed and highly visible cryptologic community "thought leadership" in his USNI Proceedings article Learning to Operate in Cyberspace.  This same type of "thought leadership" is being provided behind a firewall for members of the cryptologic community with the wherewithal and security clearance credentials to seek it.  Those with a genuine "need to know" can check out the Admiral's blog post on SIPRNET at http://www.fleetforces.navy.smil.mil/registration/default.aspx.  I expect we'll hear more and more from the Admiral as the re-emergence of naval cryptology suggested by the Chief of Naval Operations in his congressional testimony, speeches, POM submission and CNO guidance becomes more evident.

When I am talking about a thought leader, I am using Jean Van Rennselar's four key descriptors:
  • A thought leader is a verifiable expert, not a rogue commentator.
  • A thought leader is a creative pragmatist, not necessarily a visionary.
  • A thought leader is, not just willing, but eager to give information away.
  • A thought leader is motivated by generosity, not self-interest.
You have to give Rear Admiral Leigher an upcheck on all four criteria.


7 comments:

  1. Sir,

    Can you expound on this -- "the re-emergence of naval cryptology suggested by the Chief of Naval Operations in his congressional testimony becomes more evident."

    Found testimony from March 9th but he only mentions cryptology once.

    Thanks.

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  2. I was with Bill at the NSG HQ. Smart man. Not big brain smart but smart in an everyman sort of way. I am not surprised he is an Admiral, though I know it surprised him. Hats off to you shipmate. You earned it. Integrity beyond 99% of the others I have seen.

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  3. Bill is a leader (.) period !

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  4. We don't give away crypto much do we?

    The NAVY doesn't do CRYPTO much since we kind of gave all of that to NSA. or DIRNSA if you will.

    Not a happy camper with navy crypto. They brought us NETWARCOM and other completely inept shut down artists.

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  5. HMS - I doubt that you've remained connected enough to the Navy to know what's going on with cryptology today.

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  6. If I had, say up to 3 years ago hung on to what?

    crypto? what is that? is that kw 7s talking to each other?

    super sleathal code unknown to nobody because we don't play that code much Ames? Hanson?

    Is that utter to brilliant to be written onto machine and potentially read out at full blast OTCIXS speed before all the satellites failed?


    Oh no, wait for it...........wait, .......wait,

    It's another tip top secret algorithm that lets one encrypt shit that folks like Manning and Assange release by the billion...

    yeah man, that's it.

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  7. no you're right. I only had one person in af prepare 9 daily briefs each at a different cypto level every single day. Made his 15 month tour go so very fast. Probably appreciated Radiant Mercury for some of it but you would know best.

    Neither one of us is going to even hint at things we know but on the hand, I made it my business to know so much I can safely write whatever thought pollutes my head because I can infer what you know. A legitimate first even if that was used as a joke in a book I recently read.

    Now I'll admit that it used to cause stress that I was going/directed to be sent/ordered into the field based on I&W none of which I was entitled to know despite the whole clearance thing. Then I got it...it was a little party where those that could not contribute one iota to the music got to smurk smuggly but could point to the new force they deployed in response. Then the towers came down and we did not see that smurk for a few years and then it came back.

    did you see that little clearing down there at the end of the path? Yeah, our business was to put all kinds of radar, flir and sonar sensors around it. Often we didn't know why but sometimes, we flat out demanded to know why. slit your throats kind of why. not marines or ever even close. just deadly to friend or foe. too many of them ended in bring me into the skiff and explain or fuck off we'll just go home. We were unique in those days and we could do that in a heartbeat. MIUW was extremely lightweight way back when.

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