I would imagine with someone like Bruce Schneier, you'd be paying them for the name and not their output. Google did it with a bunch of legendary computer scientists. Their role is mainly to get top notch junior people to come work there.

Really, that's surprising to me. Would people of Bruce Schneier/Fyodor/et al stature go through the same interview process that everyone else goes through? I'm pretty sure they wouldn't at a big company but you guys do things differently (for the better it seems) so maybe?

Yes, they would. I am 100% sure of it.

For all I know Fyodor is a collective of cheap developers and designers from far-far-away coordinated through an outsourcing agency with a single front figure reading from a teleprompter.

That would still be a notable effort, but I'd like to know who I'm hiring and for which qualifications (cat herding or design and implementation).

Do you also feel that Bruce Schneier could be a collective of cheap developers? That seems like a pretty odd position to take give Fydor's identity is widely known. (http://insecure.org/fyodor/)

"For all I know Fyodor is a collective of cheap developers and designers from far-far-away coordinated through an outsourcing agency with a single front figure reading from a teleprompter."

And would that matter?

In general? No.

When the teleprompter reading person applies for a security job they're supposed to do alone? yes.