Las Vegas: The head
of the US National Security Administration (NSA) took to an audience of
thousands of security professionals to explain his agency's
controverisal surveillance programmes.
Gen. Keith Alexander told attendees at
the 2013 Black Hat conference that the agency's FISA and PRISM
procedures are being carried out with far more discretion and oversight
than commonly believed and are solely used for the purpose of gathering
data on known or suspected terrorists.
“Their intention is not to go after our
communications, their intention is to find the terrorists that walk
among us,” Alexander said of the NSA.
“We comply with court orders and do this exactly right, and if we make a mistake we hold ourselves accountable and report it.”
According to Alexander, the NSA operates
under a strict set of limitations and is subject to regular audits which
pore over all collected data, much of which is highly anonymised.
According to screen shots provided by the NSA, phone data is limited to
dates and times, origin and destination numbers, and means of
collection. No audio, SMS or account information is harvested at any
point in the process.
The number of people in charge of
actually the surveillance information is limited as well. Alexander said
that just 22 inividuals within the NSA are allowed to authorise the
colllection of data, and just 35 analysts are authorised to view phone
data collected through the FISA programme.
Alexander also talked up the strict
judicial regulations that govern the programme and require the NSA to
obtain authorisation from Federal Courts for all surveillance
activities. Contrary to popular belief, says Alexander, the NSA often
finds itself with a skeptical audience when it seeks judiciary approval.
“They want to make sure that what we are
doing comports with the constitution and federal law, and they are dead
serious about it,” Alexander told attendees.
“These are tremendous judges, they are not a rubber stamp.”
The NSA boss was not without his
detractors, however. Sporadic heckling from the crowd roasted Alexander
for issues ranging from the constitutionality of the programme to the US
policies behind its Middle East activities.
Ultimately, however, Alexander would
reach out to the audience, inviting security professionals to submit
their questions and comments with the administration and help it to
revise and improve its policies.
“We need to hear from you because the
tools and the things we use are very much the same as the tools you use
in securing your networks,” he said.
“The difference is the oversight and compliance we have in these programmes, that part is missing in much of the discussion.”
No comments:
Post a Comment