Silicon Valley Wary as Pentagon Chief Comes to Court Innovators
With malware joining missiles among the threats to America’s security, leading technology innovators such as Apple Inc. and Google Inc. are being recruited to join traditional defense contractors on the front lines.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is visiting Silicon Valley Friday as part of a continuing effort to bridge the divide between the Pentagon and a tech community wary of excessive surveillance and privacy violations.
There’s no high-tech equivalent of the “military-industrial complex” that troubled the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and gone are the days when government spending fueled technological innovations that benefited both the Pentagon and defense contractors.
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Still, Carter is facing an uphill battle.
Top-level Pentagon outreach is necessary because “the tech companies distrust U.S. government officials and think there is little exciting work in government even if they were interested,” said MacKenzie Eaglen, a defense analyst with the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-27/silicon-valley-wary-as-pentagon-chief-comes-to-court-innovators
