News you may have missed #302 (NSA edition)

• Former NSA tech chief doesn’t trust cloud computing. Brian Snow, the former US National Security Agency technical director, told a conference that he doesn’t trust cloud services and bluntly admonished vendors for leaving software vulnerabilities unpatched, sometimes for years.
• Former key NSA official relocates to Silicon Valley. Prescott Winter, formerly chief information officer and chief technology officer at the US National Security Agency, has joined ArcSight Inc., a Silicon Valley developer of security and compliance management tools for government and private industry. Revolving doors galore!
• NSA cybersecurity role worries civil liberties groups. The Obama administration’s plan to bolster US cyber security calls for greater cooperation between private companies and the National Security Agency. But civil liberties advocates are sounding alarms about the NSA’s role, because of the secretive nature of the agency and its role in the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.