> it should raise more suspicion than normal when former IC people go to work for a company dealing with network hardware.
Fair enough about the perception of former IC employees entering the private sector. For the most part, "former IC employee" only impacts an organization once something else newsworthy occurs. Cisco considered the risk to be low that the CIA would pay a former official to order Cisco employees to insert a backdoor without a single one reporting this outside their chain. Personally, I think it benefits companies to hire employees with a diversity of backgrounds.
> [backdoor] approach is far superior ... [they] just don't scale well ... it's just badass.
The lack of scalability is a feature if you ask me. It should be expensive and difficult enough to limit espionage to those target that matter. And it's more palatable to the people who these agencies ultimately report to.