Keith B. Alexander

Keith Brian Alexander (born 2 December 1951) is a retired four-star general of the United States Army, and the additional duties as Commander United States Cyber Command on 21 May 2010.

Alexander announced his retirement on 16 October 2013. His retirement date was 28 March 2014. In May 2014, Alexander founded IronNet Cybersecurity, a private-sector cybersecurity firm based in Fulton, Maryland. He would leave the company in February 2024.

Early life and education Alexander was born on 2 December 1951, in Syracuse, New York, the son of Charlotte L. (Colvin) and Donald Henry Alexander. He was raised in Onondaga Hill, New York, a suburb of Syracuse. He was a paperboy for The Post-Standard and attended Westhill Senior High School, where he ran track.

Alexander attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, and in his class were three other future four-star generals: David Petraeus, Martin Dempsey and Walter L. Sharp. In April 1974, Alexander married Deborah Lynn Douglas, who was a classmate in high school and who grew up near his family in Onondaga Hill.

Alexander entered active duty at West Point, intending to serve for only five years. Alexander's military education includes the Armor Officer Basic Course, the Military Intelligence Officer Advanced Course, the United States Army Command and General Staff College, and the National War College.

Alexander worked on signals intelligence at a number of secret National Security Agency bases in the United States and Germany. He rose quickly up the military ranks, due to his expertise in advanced technology and his competency at administration. Mary Louise Kelly, who interviewed him later for NPR, said that because he was "outside the chain of command that oversaw interrogations in Iraq", Alexander was able to survive with his "reputation intact".

In 2004, along with Alberto Gonzales and others in the George W. Bush administration, Alexander presented a memorandum that sought to justify the treatment of those who were deemed "unlawful enemy combatants".

In June 2013, the National Security Agency was revealed by whistle-blower Edward Snowden to be secretly spying on the American people with FISA-approved surveillance programs, such as PRISM and XKeyscore.

On 16 October 2013, it was publicly announced that Alexander and his deputy, Chris Inglis were leaving the NSA.

On 13 April 2016, President Obama announced Alexander as a member of his Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.

NSA appointment

In 2005, secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld named Alexander, then a three-star general, as Director of the National Security Agency. There, according to Bamford, Alexander deceived the House Intelligence Committee when his agency was involved in warrantless wiretapping. This "collect it all" strategy introduced by Keith Alexander is believed by Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian to be the model for the comprehensive world-wide mass archiving of communications which NSA had become engaged in by 2013.

According to Siobhan Gorman of The Wall Street Journal, a government official stated that Alexander offered to resign after the 2013 global surveillance disclosures first broke out in June 2013, but that the Obama administration asked him not to.

Cyber command Alexander was confirmed by the United States Senate for appointment to the rank of general on May 7, 2010, and was officially promoted to that rank in a ceremony on 21 May 2010. Alexander assumed command of United States Cyber Command in the same ceremony that made him a four-star general.

Alexander delivered the keynote address at Black Hat USA in July 2013. The organizers describe Alexander as an advocate of "battlefield visualization and 'data fusion' for more useful intelligence". He provided them with this quote:

Statements to the public regarding NSA operations Alexander (left) with Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and DNI James Clapper at Alexander's retirement ceremony in 2014 Alexander gave the most comprehensive interview of his career, which spanned around 17,000 words, on 8 May 2014 to the Australian Financial Review journalist Christopher Joye, which was subsequently cited by Edward Snowden. The full transcript, which covers NSA operations, Snowden, the metadata debates, encryption controversies, and Chinese and Russian spying, has been published online. On Snowden, Alexander told Joye: "I suspect Russian intelligence are driving what he does. Understand as well that they're only going to let him do those things that benefit Russia, or stand to help improve Snowden's credibility". Wired magazine said that the AFR interview with Alexander showed that he was defending the stockpiling of zero-days, while The Wall Street Journal and other media focused upon Alexander's claims about Snowden working for Russian intelligence. In July 2012, in response to a question from Jeff Moss, the founder of the DEF CON hacker convention, "... does the NSA really keep a file on everyone?", Alexander replied, "No, we don't. Absolutely no. And anybody who would tell you that we're keeping files or dossiers on the American people knows that's not true."

In March 2012, in response to questions from Representative Hank Johnson during a United States Congress hearing about allegations made by former NSA officials that the NSA engages in collection of voice and digital information of U.S. citizens, Alexander said that, despite the allegations of "James Bashford" in Wired magazine, the NSA does not collect that data.

On 9 July 2012, when asked by a member of the press if a large data center in Utah was used to store data on American citizens, Alexander stated, "No. While I can't go into all the details on the Utah Data Center, we don't hold data on U.S. citizens."

At DEF CON 2012, Alexander was the keynote speaker; during the question and answers session, in response to the question "Does the NSA really keep a file on everyone, and if so, how can I see mine?" Alexander replied "Our job is foreign intelligence" and that "Those who would want to weave the story that we have millions or hundreds of millions of dossiers on people, is absolutely false ... From my perspective, this is absolute nonsense." This metadata information included originating and terminating telephone number, telephone calling card number, IMEI number, time and duration of phone calls.

Andy Greenberg of Forbes said that NSA officials, including Alexander, in the years 2012 and 2013 "publicly denied—often with carefully hedged words—participating in the kind of snooping on Americans that has since become nearly undeniable."

Retirement Alexander announced his retirement on October 16, 2013. In August 2021, IronNet went public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) via a SPAC merger with LGL Systems Acquisition Corp. Alexander was later replaced by Linda Zecher on 12 July 2023, as CEO of IronNet. After two years of going public, IronNet announced it will be delisted from the NYSE in August 2023 leaving all retail investors with worthless shares.

In early October 2024 the AP reported that an investment bank had approached over 100 prospective buyers for the company, citing federal records, but none of them made an offer.

Awards and decorations Medals and ribbons

Alexander was inducted into the NPS Hall of Fame in 2013.

Tax identity theft In the fall of 2014, Alexander told a public forum that someone else had claimed a $9,000 IRS refund in his name, and that the thieves used his identity to apply for about 20 credit cards.