Inside the IC

Over his decade of service at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Rodney Petersen has had a front row seat to the evolving state of the cyber workforce across government, industry and academia. In his role as director of education and workforce at NIST’s Applied Cybersecurity Division, Petersen led efforts to standardize cyber workforce roles and better understand skills gaps that are now a recurring theme in cyber policy discussions.
With Petersen retiring at the end of 2025, I spoke with him about the evolution of NIST's cyber workforce programs, the progress made on the pernicious cyber talent gap, and what comes next for cyber workforce and education amid the rise of artificial intelligence.
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Tim Brennan, VP of technology policy and government relations at the Professional Services Council, joins me to discuss the latest legislative proposals to help streamline the gargantuan security clearance process. One of the priorities for PSC's members, which includes many cleared contractors, is developing a bigger bench of people with security clearances. "We are fishing in such a small pond right now with folks that are cleared and then have the expertise to do that cleared work that I'm a little nervous about it," Tim told me.
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Open-source intelligence, or OSINT, has reached an inflection point in the IC. Several agencies in recent years have published strategies aimed at better harnessing OSINT. Now, they're embarking on new initiatives to improve data collection and management, train the workforce, and share best practices across the community. But a multitude of challenges remain, including skills gaps, data siloes, bureaucratic and cultural barriers, funding challenges, and more.
Recently, I brought together a panel of experts to debate and discuss the past, present and future of OSINT in the intelligence community. The guests on this episode are:
David Gauthier, the chief strategy officer for CXO, and the visiting fellow at the National Security Institute and former director of commercial operations at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Ellen McCarthy, the CEO of the Trust in Media Cooperative, and former assistant secretary of state for the bureau of intelligence and research
Chip Usher, the senior director for intelligence at the Special Competitive Studies Project, and a former CIA executive
Eliot Jardines, the founder and director of the OSINT Foundation, and former assistant deputy director of national intelligence for open source

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The widespread layoffs and resignations unfolding across the federal government represent a prime opportunity for foreign spy agencies. In an April bulletin, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center warned that foreign intelligence organizations are targeting current and former U.S. government employees by posing as consulting firms, corporate headhunters and other job opportunities.
Max Lesser, a senior analyst on emerging threats for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, recently uncovered a likely Chinese intelligence operation that targets laid off federal employees using fake consulting firms. I spoke with Max about how he investigated the operation and what feds, current and former, should look out for when they’re scrolling LinkedIn and online job boards. 
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Cortney Weinbaum, a senior management scientist at RAND, joins the show to discuss her recent paper, “Intelligence officers have an ethical responsibility to use tradecraft.” Countless professional disciplines have a code of ethics. But such a code does not exist for the intelligence community. Weinbaum argues that intelligence officers have an ethical responsibility to use the right tools and methods -- aka “tradecraft” -- and that recent intelligence failures stemmed from bad tradecraft. Meanwhile, the increasing reliance on AI within the IC means it’s crucial that intelligence officers understand the technology they use, along with its limitations. 
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