US spy agency: No reading private emails
Source: Agencies |
July 11, 2012, Wednesday
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THE head of the United States spy agency that eavesdrops on electronic communications overseas has sought to reassure Americans that the National Security Agency would not read their personal email if a new cybersecurity law was enacted to allow private companies to share information with the government.
The House of Representatives in April approved a bill that would allow the government and companies to share information about hacking. But the White House and key Senate Democrats back a broader approach.
Critics have raised privacy concerns about the sharing of such information, concerned it would allow the NSA, which also protects government computer networks, to collect data on American communications, which is generally prohibited by law.
"The reality is we can do protection of civil liberties and privacy and cybersecurity as a nation," General Keith Alexander said on Monday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
But to help protect the private sector, he said it was important that the intelligence agency be able to inform them about the type of malicious software and other cyber intrusions it is seeing and hear from companies about what they see breaching the protective measures on their computer networks.
"It doesn't require the government to read their mail or your mail to do that. It requires them, the Internet service provider or that company, to tell us that type of event is going on at this time. And it has to be at network speed if you're going to stop it," Alexander said.
He said the information the government was seeking was the Internet address where an email containing malicious software originated and where it traveled to, not the content of the email. Alexander said it was important to write the legislation now rather than wait until there is a crisis, which could cause the government to overreact and go too far.
The US government is also concerned about the possibility of a cyber attack from adversaries on critical infrastructure such as the power grid or transportation systems. Alexander said so far a threat from al-Qaida in the cyber sphere had not materialized.
"I don't personally believe they're a viable threat in that realm right now," said Alexander, also head of US Cyber Command, the military combatant command responsible for activities in cyberspace.
But the tools to become a threat are available publicly "to anybody who has access to the web and who is semi-literate," Alexander said. "So I am concerned that while I don't see it today, that they could very quickly get to that."
Alexander said the NSA's new data center under construction at Camp Williams, Utah, does not "hold data on US citizens," but he declined to go into further detail about the facility, which will have nearly 10,000 square meters of computer space when completed next year.
The House of Representatives in April approved a bill that would allow the government and companies to share information about hacking. But the White House and key Senate Democrats back a broader approach.
Critics have raised privacy concerns about the sharing of such information, concerned it would allow the NSA, which also protects government computer networks, to collect data on American communications, which is generally prohibited by law.
"The reality is we can do protection of civil liberties and privacy and cybersecurity as a nation," General Keith Alexander said on Monday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
But to help protect the private sector, he said it was important that the intelligence agency be able to inform them about the type of malicious software and other cyber intrusions it is seeing and hear from companies about what they see breaching the protective measures on their computer networks.
"It doesn't require the government to read their mail or your mail to do that. It requires them, the Internet service provider or that company, to tell us that type of event is going on at this time. And it has to be at network speed if you're going to stop it," Alexander said.
He said the information the government was seeking was the Internet address where an email containing malicious software originated and where it traveled to, not the content of the email. Alexander said it was important to write the legislation now rather than wait until there is a crisis, which could cause the government to overreact and go too far.
The US government is also concerned about the possibility of a cyber attack from adversaries on critical infrastructure such as the power grid or transportation systems. Alexander said so far a threat from al-Qaida in the cyber sphere had not materialized.
"I don't personally believe they're a viable threat in that realm right now," said Alexander, also head of US Cyber Command, the military combatant command responsible for activities in cyberspace.
But the tools to become a threat are available publicly "to anybody who has access to the web and who is semi-literate," Alexander said. "So I am concerned that while I don't see it today, that they could very quickly get to that."
Alexander said the NSA's new data center under construction at Camp Williams, Utah, does not "hold data on US citizens," but he declined to go into further detail about the facility, which will have nearly 10,000 square meters of computer space when completed next year.
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