NSA workers are fleeing Fort Meade for the private sector

The National Security Agency is losing top workers to the private sector, according to Cyberscoop.
Former NSA Director Keith Alexander told a gathering of reporters at the University of Maryland that workers “are increasingly leaving in large numbers” due to low morale and opportunities in the private sector. Alexander said the opportunities in the private sector are increasingly lucrative, the cybersecurity news outlet reports:

“I am honestly surprised that some of these people in cyber companies make up to seven figures. That’s five times what the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff makes. Right? And these are people that are 32 years old.”

National reports frequently cite Silicon Valley as a landing point for the workers, but former NSA employees are a part of the wave of entrepreneurs starting cybersecurity companies in the Baltimore area. Even as the startups and companies in Maryland continue to grow, the report offers a sign that the much-discussed workforce challenge, in which there are more jobs available than people with the skills to fill them, will remain on the government’s agenda.