WASHINGTON – It is “only a matter of time” before another country or other cyber-enemies launch offensive attacks against critical infrastructure in the U.S., according to Adm. Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency.
“You look at what happened with Sony, you look at what we’ve seen nation-states attempting to do to U.S. financial websites for some number of years now, those are all things that, were they successful … think about the implications for us as a nation as individuals,” he told a New American Foundation cybersecurity conference.
He mentioned that the world is still in the early stages of cyber warfare and that threats to the U.S. will continue to grow.
“I think it’s only a matter of time before we see destructive offensive actions taken against critical U.S. infrastructure,” he said.
There was a contentious moment during the question-and-answer period of the session, when Yahoo’s chief information security officer, Alex Stamos, asked if the website should give foreign governments access to customers’ encrypted data in the same way that the United States has requested. The NSA has asked technology companies to install “backdoors” so the government can monitor their users’ behaviors online.
“I’m the first to acknowledge there are international implications. I think we can work our way through this,” Rogers said.
Stamos asked once again, and Rogers gave the same response — “we can work our way through this.”
“I’m sure the Chinese and Russians are going to have the same opinion,” Stamos responded.
“I said I think we can work through this.”
Rogers also voiced the frustrations that have echoes throughout the intelligence community about lost capabilities from the Edward Snowden revelations.
“It concerns me a lot,” said Rogers. “Given our footprint around the world, when I think about our ability to provide insights to help protect citizens wherever they are … clearly I’m very concerned.”
In June 2013, Snowden revealed that the NSA was spying on U.S. citizens’ phone call history — called metadata — and internet use. He also showed that the agency was using secret court orders to do much of its surveillance.
“Metadata collection generates value for the nation. I honestly believe that,” Rogers said. “Now, is it a silver bullet that, in and of itself, guarantees that there will never be another 9/11, or there won’t be a successful terrorist attack, my comment would be ‘no.’”
In January 2014, President Barack Obama issued instructions that established policies and procedures for safeguarding personal information collected during signals intelligence activities. However, he also defended the NSA and its practices. That was the only publicly announced reform after the revelations.
“Anyone who thinks this does not have an impact, I would say, does not know what they are talking about,” Rogers said. “It has had a material impact on our ability to generate insights into what terrorist groups around the world are doing.”
