Former NSA Chief Nakasone Says Agency Overhaul Is 'Probably Needed'

Former NSA Director Says Reported Agency Overhaul Is 'Probably Necessary'

Paul Nakasone, who led the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. Cyber Command from 2018 to 2024, said on October 6, 2026, that a reported sweeping reorganization of the NSA is likely necessary given how dramatically the threat landscape has changed — but cautioned that its success will depend entirely on execution, not just structural redesign. Speaking at VulnCheck's ThreatCon1 conference, Nakasone addressed last month's Washington Post report that current NSA Director Gen. Joshua M. Rudd is pursuing the agency's most extensive internal restructuring in at least a decade.

"I think that the world has changed so dramatically, so it's hard to imagine [the NSA] not changing," Nakasone said, calling the reorganization "probably necessary" while stressing that large-scale institutional change is difficult to execute and typically takes considerable time. He tied that caution directly to two converging pressures: cyberattacks that now move at a fraction of their 2018 speed, and a national security workforce that is aging out faster than it is being replaced.

Key Details

What the Reported Reorganization Involves

Five new mission centers

According to the Washington Post's September report, Gen. Rudd's plan creates five new organizations at NSA's Fort Meade headquarters, each centered on a strategic priority: artificial intelligence, China, cybersecurity, combat support (warfighting), and global intelligence. Each center is to be led by a newly elevated "mission director," a role agency leadership says will carry authority on par with an NSA deputy director. It remains unclear whether the new centers will replace existing divisions outright or be layered on top of the current organizational chart.

An aggressive, reversible rollout

Gen. Rudd reportedly set a compressed timetable: finalized redesign plans by the end of September, initial rollout by mid-October, and full operating capacity by mid-January 2027. Officials have signaled the agency may make rapid, reversible adjustments as it tests the new structure rather than committing to a single final design up front — an approach that explains some of Nakasone's emphasis on execution risk over conceptual merit.

Recruiting mission directors from outside the agency

Because the mission-director roles carry deputy-level authority, NSA leadership has suggested some could be filled by candidates recruited from outside the agency, including former officials being asked to return. "They are begging people to come back, especially leaders," one agency official told the Washington Post. The restructuring also includes reconstituting an elite hacking unit that had previously been disbanded, alongside a significant budget increase for offensive cyber capability.

The AI and China threads behind the timing

The reorganization follows a joint advisory from the NSA, FBI, and CISA accusing six Chinese companies — including DeepSeek and Alibaba — of running large-scale AI model-distillation campaigns against U.S. artificial intelligence systems. That advisory, combined with the agency's 2023 creation of an AI security center, situates the current overhaul as an escalation of a multi-year effort to formally elevate AI and China work inside the agency's structure rather than treat them as cross-cutting side issues.

Nakasone's threat-speed argument

Nakasone framed the urgency behind any reorganization in terms of adversary speed. When he took command in 2018, he said, adversaries typically needed hours to move laterally through a compromised network. By 2025, that "dwell time" had fallen to an average of 29 minutes. "We're well past that, and this is the challenge that we have as we think about our opportunities to have better defense," he said. He also described a narrowing "defender's window" — a temporary advantage AI currently gives defenders before adversaries fully weaponize the same technology against critical infrastructure.

The workforce problem underneath the org chart

Nakasone argued that no structural redesign solves NSA's underlying staffing challenge on its own. He cited figures showing the national security workforce averages 47 years old, with half older than 50, only 10% younger than 30, and 13.5% already eligible for immediate retirement. He said government must actively demonstrate that public service is valued in order to compete with private-sector pay and flexibility when recruiting the technical talent a reorganized NSA will need to staff five new mission centers simultaneously.

Impact Assessment

Recommendations

For government and defense-sector security leaders

• Track mission-director appointments as they're named — reporting lines and points of contact for AI, China, cybersecurity, combat support, and global-intelligence coordination are likely to shift through at least January 2027.
• Expect interim instability in NSA-adjacent liaison channels during the rollout window, given the agency's own acknowledgment that early changes may be rapid and reversible.
• Factor compressed dwell times into incident-response planning — Nakasone's 29-minute figure reflects the broader adversary trend, not an NSA-specific threshold, and applies to private-sector defenders as well.

For cybersecurity workforce planners

• Benchmark retention and succession planning against the cited demographics — a workforce where 13.5% is retirement-eligible and only 10% is under 30 is not unique to NSA; agencies and enterprises alike should audit their own technical-staff age distribution.
• Build talent pipelines that don't depend solely on competing with private-sector compensation — Nakasone's call to demonstrate the value of public service applies equally to any organization recruiting scarce AI-security and offensive-cyber talent.

For policymakers and oversight bodies

• Request clarity on whether mission centers replace or layer onto existing divisions before the full operating-capacity deadline, since ambiguity here is the structural risk Nakasone flagged most directly.
• Monitor budget allocations tied to the reconstituted hacking unit for oversight purposes, given the stated increase in offensive capability funding alongside the broader reorganization.

Key Takeaways

1. Former NSA Director Paul Nakasone called the agency's reported reorganization "probably necessary" but warned success depends on execution, not structure alone.
2. Current NSA Director Gen. Joshua M. Rudd is reportedly creating five new mission centers — AI, China, cybersecurity, combat support, and global intelligence — each led by a deputy-level "mission director."
3. The rollout timeline is aggressive: redesign plans by end of September 2026, initial rollout by mid-October 2026, full operating capacity by mid-January 2027.
4. Nakasone cited a drop in adversary lateral-movement "dwell time" from hours in 2018 to an average of 29 minutes in 2025 as the core justification for faster-moving defensive structures.
5. A national security workforce averaging 47 years old, with 13.5% retirement-eligible and only 10% under 30, poses a staffing risk to standing up five new centers simultaneously.
6. The reorganization follows a joint NSA/FBI/CISA advisory on Chinese AI-distillation campaigns and includes reconstituting a previously disbanded elite hacking unit with increased funding.

Sources

• CyberScoop — Former NSA chief Nakasone says agency overhaul is 'probably needed'
• The Washington Post — National Security Agency launches historic restructuring