Spies fear a consulting firm helped hobble U.S. intelligence

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/02/spies-intelligence-community-mckinsey-1390863

By Natasha Bertrand and Daniel Lippman
Politico.com
07/02/2019

America's vast spying apparatus was built around a Cold War world of dead 
drops and double agents. Today, that world has fractured and migrated 
online, with hackers and rogue terrorist cells, leaving intelligence 
operatives scrambling to keep up.

So intelligence agencies did what countless other government offices have 
done: They brought in a consultant. For the past four years, the 
powerhouse firm McKinsey and Co., has helped restructure the country’s 
spying bureaucracy, aiming to improve response time and smooth 
communication.

Instead, according to nearly a dozen current and former officials who 
either witnessed the restructuring firsthand or are familiar with the 
project, the multimillion dollar overhaul has left many within the 
country’s intelligence agencies demoralized and less effective.

These insiders said the efforts have hindered decision-making at key 
agencies — including the CIA, National Security Agency and the Office of 
the Director of National Intelligence.

They said McKinsey helped complicate a well-established linear chain of 
command, slowing down projects and turnaround time, and applied 
cookie-cutter solutions to agencies with unique cultures. In the process, 
numerous employees have become dismayed, saying the efforts have at best 
been a waste of money and, at worst, made their jobs more difficult. It’s 
unclear how much McKinsey was paid in that stretch, but according to news 
reports and people familiar with the effort, the total exceeded $10 
million.

[...]

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