Thank you all for joining scthin session and thank you for taking the time to have a discussion with us, today. My pleasure. After he was here for the opening, we had a meeting that day and he was saying, i got to open. It was so much fun and he was talking about the conversation he had and you are closing it. M there. M jason thank you. Lets jump into the topic around work or spirit we recognize the importance of a talented and work we recognize the importance of force ana talented and diver workforce in Cyber Security given the challenges we face. In this age, there have been amazing tools being developed but we have frankly seen our adversaries take advantage of those tools. What sorts of skills does the Intelligence Community look for for the workforce of today and tomorrow . Priorities and we have a list of degrees in areas and areas of expertise we are interested in. What is most important at the end of the day honestly is really the skills that are sort of inherent in these different areas, which is critical to thinking and judgment and really excelling at what you do and frankly bringing integrity and ethics and those things, given the extreme area responsibilities we give in the Intelligence Community, so those are the kinds of things we are focused on. We ought to tell people that honestly, no matter what it is you study, chances are weve got a job for you in the Intelligence Community because we do so many Different Things. You can be writing analytic work on food security, environmental issues, scarcity of Natural Resources in different areas and we have somebody who is a water expert. In a way, it is the interconnections they make between the different fields they have that are very special for us in helping us understand the complexity of how the world works and that is so much a part of what we do, so anybody should apply. Www. Intelligencecareers. Gov. The advertisement. Avril exactly, it is what im good for. Jason we all relate to the skills and it appears there has been a repride took ashbury prioritization of the National Security focus, particularly from Counter Terrorism to one focus on defending nation state actors. Is that a bit of a fair assessment, and if so, where there challenges in adapting the work or stew some of those changes in priorities . Avril i think it is mostly fair. In the sense that there is no question the Threat Landscape has changed over the last 20 years. And certainly when the institution i run was established, it was very much a conversation about counterterrorism. It has shifted largely towards strategic competition as you note and yet also transnational threats continue to be a fundamental piece of our work, and increasingly, like part of it. In many ways it is the kind of connections between these different in many ways, it is the kind of connections between these two which is a space that we are constantly trying to understand and better predict and effectively provide policymakers with a sense of how things are likely to develop and what are the opportunities and the challenges ahead but the other aspect i see that has really shifted, we are increasingly broadening the definition of National Security. For us, Climate Change or health and Human Security is such a big part of emerging and Disruptive Technologies of course just a whole series of types we are bringing in different issues. It is also integrating so that we can bring it into places we dont normally think about it. How do certain negotiations affect Climate Change issues that are being worked on in other parts of the government. It is a complex landscape but also counterterrorism remains an issue for us. Terrace threats have not gone away and we continue to be vigilant about it but we also have to understand how it connects to all of these other issues. There is the connectedness of an expanding scope. The next topping in question is really around a shift in the way i see thinks about communicating what it collects. And what kind of learning do you really have to think about and take place here and move away from culture, one change into compartment nation, one open and willing to share . Here is how i think about it. We have to be trainable in a sense and the compartment piece remains critical to us. We will not be able to do our job unless we keep a secret in the sense and recognize that as a part of our but exactly as you say, jason, we are also increasing recognizing and importance the most obvious in our National Security strategy that obviously the Intelligence Community supports, focuses in on the importance of allies in part is so we recognize that sharing is a big part of promoting, sort of better understanding among partners and allies so that you actually have a shared view of the threat so that you can respond in an appropriate way, integrative, collaborative way and ultimately sharing is important to the implementation in a series of ways but more relevant to the Cyber Security world that so many of you exist in, it is increasingly obvious to everybody that the Threat Landscape requires us to increasingly share intelligence with nontraditional partners. Part of it, i would say, is in understanding the Threat Landscape. We recognize that we do these Global Trends reports every four years or so where we look at about 15 years and we say here are the big Global Trends around academia, think tanks and the private sector and so on and one of the key trends we see is nonstate actors which in part is the private sector but it is also transnational movements and actors in the spaces. And we as an Intelligence Community are focused nonstate actors and prompted to state action but increasingly, we recognize that we have to think about the Global Landscape given the way geopolitical power now is exercised and so if we kind of moved down that road, we recognize that we need to have a better understanding of the agendas of major multinational corporations, for example, or cities and states, sometimes. Things built into how we are looking at understanding what the landscape looks like additionally and this is something that is obvious to all of you, too. We recognize that so much outside of government is part of our attack surface, so to speak. Whether it is Critical Infrastructure by the private sector or sectors of our private sector Like Technology areas that we are needing to focus on in order to help them protect themselves because they are of a section importance from National Security perspective that we need to share information with them, help them to see the threat but we also need to bring them further into the Decision Making cycle so that we are able to say how do you respond . How do you think it makes sense to respond to these things . Because many people in the private sector and other spaces that we are trying to work with have a better understanding of what is going to work, what is not going to work, how to think about these issues and you have an incredible amount of information in the private sector that is valuable to us so that we can understand the threat and analyze it appropriately and we work with so Many Companies now to try to do that. But it is a very challenging space for us, i think, to get into the relationship and information and it is not just about downgrading and declassification although that is a part of it but about establishing mechanisms that makes this part of our routine that makes it easier for us to basically partner with the community and more effective ways. It is a lot to cover. It is quite all right but it sort of strikes me from the cyber perspective, we are thinking about disrupting and dismantling cyber threat actors. You pay a broad landscape of constituents so how do you think about collector and Analysis Organization . Thinking about it can be more proactive in countering kind of what they are studying. There is so much to cover, how do you focus in on that . I know less about this than you do, for example, jason. And probably all of you if not most of you as well but one of the things i see is, as we are looking at the Cyber Security landscape, we are in a position where, obviously, if the threat evolves to Cyber Security has been an issue for decades but ransomware over the last few years, it is this thing we are obviously seeing and it is becoming more diffused as we are looking through the ecosystem for ransomware. As an example, in looking at that challenge and tried to find that Threat Landscape, we got to actually reach out to nontraditional partners in order to collect the information that we need and we have negotiators that fit between companies and those who are actually trying to collect rents of from the tax. We have insurers, others, a whole series of different partners that we need to pull information from. That is a challenge, something that i think we are Getting Better at but we are certainly not where we need to be ultimately and it is kind of a, like a characteristic, i think, of this area that is something that we need to do in order to do the collection and analysis that allows us to be in position. Another challenge i find is that often you have actors in a space that are relevant to state actors and also to criminal threats. Right . And there are sort of two elements to that. One is where the Intelligence Community will focus on National Security, other parts of the government to Law Enforcement and we support Law Enforcement we can focus our resources on one of the most critical threats for the nation. And we have to sort of figure out, we know that some of the ransom ware threats that exist are of such intensity or are so important ultimately that we need to actually think about them as National Security threats and to provide intelligence to help us work that through but that is a decision that has to be made about how far down do you go in terms of the support you are providing and the second sort of challenge is, this issue of we intend to focus on our state actors so dprk, cyber threat, russia or china, obviously, that is our business. We know how you do that, we sort of have the right group to focus in on it but when it comes to looking at an ecosystem actors that are out there that might sometimes combine with being used by state actors, sometimes in criminal, it might be in different spaces. It is a little harder organizationally. These are some of the things we are focusing on. How do we get better at essentially organizing ourselves and tapping into the talent and resources that we need . That is kind of where i want to go next. We have covered a bit of strategy, the landscape, the challenges. The first question i have around talent is, where is the icn, today, in terms of garnering the Technical Work skills that are required in a landscape that you described . I think we are moving to the right direction but i think of it and you should tell me jason if you think this is the way to think about it but i think about it is not just the talent in the Us Government in this area, i think about it as Cyber Threat Intelligence operations center, she does a lot of the coordination across the icn and she has talked about concentric circles where you got your focus on the workforce within the ic and within the Us Government and frankly in the private sector and other spaces around the rest government and i want to see that be more porous. In other words, where we could have people going in and out of these spaces more effectively so that we can take advantage of those opportunities to learn from each other as much as possible. I also think that there are all kinds of advantages to that, not just in terms of the sharing, of learning that we are doing across these borders but also the individuals who are thinking about their own Traditional Development and want to have an opportunity to be in different spaces in order to see where the learning can occur in these different areas. That is a part of it and i think to answer your question, obviously, other things that we are trying to do to try to increase the opportunities for folks and i am biased but i believe working in the government is just the most extraordinary job you can have. So the mission, the feeling that you can actually do something that is important for your society but also the people are spectacular and when it comes down to it, i realize the older i get, the more i come to work for the people that i get to work with and they are just so exceptional in so many different ways. You get an opportunity to do things that often and to sort of move in different spaces and government because we do so many Different Things in these areas. I think that is great. I recognize that the pay is not what it is in the private sector. There are other disadvantages. Having to skip sometimes with the windows. So there are Different Reasons and i think the fact is there are different models in different ways to think about these issues so i hope that we are able to take advantage where there is real expertise that maybe we dont have to have it home grown and other spaces and that we are able to exchange. It is interesting you meet the concentric circle analogy and i think of it the same way. Where can you pull talent from from like industry . Public and private. And a little bit further out, where do you get a long tail of candidates and skills, sort of education. Where it is from upper Higher Education or even further. Definitely the way to look at. You mentioned pay for a second. So i will jump ahead. You know that some federal agencies are incentivizing recruiting talent through an increase of pay and i see agencies are doing that, as well. What is your perspective on leveraging higher pay . Is that effective . Is that needed . I think it is important under certain circumstances, there was no question. And i think it is not just about recruiting but retention. And just thinking through, we are never going to compete with certain aspects of the private sector for just the pay that you will get plus bonus or whatever it is. We can compete in other ways in terms of benefits and security and other issues that relate. It is also a different proposition as i was sort of alluding to before so i do support incentive pay under certain circumstances and the think about how we do that in these spaces, i also think that it has to be paired with sort of this greater capacity to see movement between and partly what i was talking about before, the value of that but it is also recognizing that this generation does not think about their career, typically, in the context of 30 years and the government or the private sector in one company and a recognition of that is critical toward the system. Theres been a lot of efforts to try to change the way in which we deal with personnel benefit. To make that a little bit more realistic so that they can enjoy security but still have that flexibility in the sense, needless to say, it takes us a while to change but we are working on it. It is part of the process but i also hope that people can recognize it is another value that i think we have, you can come in with different degrees and different areas, frankly, and become find that you love Something Else and held that degree or that education is important and i think increasingly, i feel as if 10 years ago, we were talking about how we needed to have more in the sense of Technology Knowledge among Senior Leaders and folks at the table. The conversation shifted to actually we need to help Technology Folks understand more about Foreign Policy and National Security because really, the energy is so crucial. And when i look at my Senior Leadership team, i will just give you a number. Our principal deputy, stacy dixon, has a doctorate in chemical engineering. Our cio remarkable woman, adele, has a phd in mathematics. Our National Intelligence manager for global issues and climate as well as Public HealthSecurity Issues also has a science degree yet we have the person who runs our proliferation center, she has a medical degree and a couple of spaces so theres a variety of different, remarkable sort of educations that come through and hopefully, that sort of combination is useful to folks. It is interesting to hear the diversity that you describe. I was always impressed. The best i worked with had a degree in philosophy. That person was amazing. Diverse ways of thinking. So we talk a little bit about recruiting and retaining workforce and inventing through pay so maybe you want to shift back to sort of the existing workforce. The approach you have for upscaling that existing workforce dif