[Infowarrior] - NSA Chief Seeks Bigger Cybersecurity Role

[Richard Forno]

(c/o MM)

Wall Street Journal
February 27, 2012 
Pg. 5

NSA Chief Seeks Bigger Cybersecurity Role

By Siobhan Gorman

The National Security Agency director and other intelligence officials have been making the case within the Obama administration that the NSA should play a bigger role in protecting computer networks in the U.S., according to current and former U.S. officials.

The proposals from Army Gen. Keith Alexander and others would expand the NSA's authority to allow it to block or pre-empt cyberattacks targeting entities within the U.S. and to scan for cyber threats but not monitor the content of communications, these officials said.

Gen. Alexander and other intelligence officials have raised these proposals with top military and intelligence officials, as well as the White House, current and former U.S. officials said. Gen. Alexander also commands the U.S. Cyber Command.

The proposals are controversial because they would expand NSA's power to monitor networks domestically, potentially raising concerns about protecting civil liberties. The warrantless surveillance program established by the NSA under President George W. Bush eventually was put under court supervision. In addition, pre-empting a cyberattack raises questions about whether that could be considered an act of war in cyberspace.

The NSA is the U.S. government's primary eavesdropping agency focused on overseas targets. It can't intercept domestic communications without a warrant. Established in 1952, the agency originally was charged with code breaking and code making. In recent years, its code-making capabilities increasingly have been sought to bolster cybersecurity. In 2009, the Secretary of Defense established a unified subcommand, Cyber Command, to defend U.S. military networks and placed the NSA director at the helm.

Gen. Alexander is "making the case that to be effective, you have to do it at network speed—tracking domestically, monitoring, following malware or a botnet or some kind of penetration technique," a former U.S. defense official said, referring to cyber weapons.

"Gen. Alexander has repeatedly stated that our role is to inform, not make, cyber policy," said NSA spokeswoman Judith Emmel.

The White House declined to comment on internal discussions. But Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan said the administration is working to promote cybersecurity and protect privacy. He said the administration seeks to "strike a balance between addressing the operational requirements of our military, intelligence and homeland security professionals, while safeguarding the values of freedom, openness, and innovation."

The debate over these proposals underscores a central dilemma for the Obama administration and lawmakers: how to balance security and privacy when a spy agency is their best weapon against the rapidly evolving threat of cyberattacks.

U.S. national-security officials, meanwhile, have stepped up warnings about hackers who steal prized intellectual property and might try to take down the networks running key infrastructure such as electric, subway and air-traffic-control systems. The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has said the threat posed by cyberattacks will someday surpass the threat the U.S. faces from terrorism.

Proposals to expand NSA's domestic role have been debated at White House policy meetings, U.S. officials said. So far, the White House hasn't supported these proposals, at least in part because it would upset civil libertarians, a former U.S. defense official said.

Most of the leading cybersecurity bills under consideration on Capitol Hill make the Department of Homeland Security the primary agency responsible for the threat domestically.

But advocates of a greater role for NSA say it is the only organization with the capability and monitoring infrastructure to protect U.S. computer networks, and that NSA's current support role to Homeland Security won't get the job done.

NSA technology currently used to defend military networks would allow it to scan large volumes of Internet traffic and block incoming cyberattacks. Some of that technology grew out of a program launched years ago, called Tutelage, which detects incoming cyberattacks and allows NSA to block the threat or manipulate the attack code, according to people familiar with the program.

U.S. officials say that NSA isn't seeking a role that would pry into the daily lives of Americans. "I don't think NSA is trying to run wild," another U.S. official said. "Privacy and civil liberties are important. Some of this is putting ideas on the table to see what the art of the possible is."

Gen. Alexander is seen by many in the administration as the leading advocate for using NSA's powerful monitoring tools to identify and block cyberattacks in the U.S., current and former U.S. officials said.

Even so, these proposals would face long odds on Capitol Hill, where three years of legislative haggling have produced a series of proposals that tackle domestic cyberdefense by establishing a new regime in which the Department of Homeland Security takes the lead role. Under those proposals, the department would work with companies running critical infrastructure to bolster their defenses against cyberattacks.

At a cybersecurity forum last week at George Washington University, former Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell said current U.S. cyberdefenses are weak and the bills on Capitol Hill are insufficient. "There isn't a corporation in the nation that can successfully defend itself. Not one," Mr. McConnell said.

One way to address the problem, he said, would be to have NSA scan domestic networks for cyberattack code but make it illegal for NSA to read the content of communications.

Responding to that suggestion, Tommy Ross, a top national-security aide to the Senate majority leader said that lawmakers have weighed how to use NSA's capabilities. The leading cybersecurity bill in the Senate placed Homeland Security in the central role for domestic cyberdefense but would let private organizations work with NSA through Homeland Security on a voluntary basis, he said.

 

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