National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander was jeered as he pleaded with professional hackers and cyber-security experts to reconsider the indiscriminate NSA surveillance during a speech at the annual Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Alexander claimed that the surveillance methods, disclosed by
former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, have been mischaracterized
by the media and are subject to rigorous government oversight. He
was approximately 30 minutes into his speech when an audience
member, later revealed to be 30-year-old security consultant Jon
McCoy, shouted “Freedom!”
“Exactly,” Alexander replied from the stage. “We stand
for freedom.”
“Bullshit!” McCoy said.
“Not bad,” the NSA director retorted. “But I think what
you’re saying is that in these cases, what’s the distinction,
where’s the discussion and what tools do we have to stop
this.”
“No, I’m saying I don’t trust you,” McCoy said over
applause.
“You lied to Congress,” another voice jumped in. “Why
would people believe you’re not lying to us right now?”
“I haven’t lied to Congress,” said Alexander, who is
notoriously press averse. “I do think it’s important for us to
have this discussion. Because in my opinion, what you believe is
what’s written in the press without looking at the facts. This is
the greatest technical center of gravity in the world. I ask that
you all look at those facts.”
Hacker Karsten Nohl, who attended the conference, told RT that
Alexander’s speech, while applauded by supporters, offered little
new information in his defense of the program.
“I think General Alexander’s aim was to reach out to the
community and start a dialog with security experts, or at the
very least make it look as if he did,” he said. “He came
out saying that he wanted to share new information but really all
that he did was to confirm what everybody had already
known.”
“He emphasized over and over again that they are just
collecting it but not actually looking at it except for in very
few cases and the few he mentioned were terrorism cases,”
Nohl continued. “Of course that now leads to all kinds of
criticisms in terms of trust the NSA to have this data and not
using it. To me, at least, that was not very convincing.”
The general was asked to give the keynote address before Snowden
revealed the existence of the PRISM and Tempora electronic
programs as well as orders directing Verizon Communications to
turn over the phone records for millions of Americans. Black Hat
organizers told CBS Alexander could have opted out of the
conference but chose not to.
He admitted the NSA’s public image has been damaged, but claimed
only 35 employees are authorized to review phone surveillance
queries, and only 22 who can actually approve the monitoring of
specific phone numbers.
“Their reputation has been tarnished,” he said. “But
you can help us articulate the facts properly. I will answer
every question to the fullest extent possible, and I promise you
the truth: What I know, what we’re doing, and what I cannot tell
you because we don’t want to jeopardize the future of our
defense.”
US Congressmen admitted frustration with Alexander earlier this
year when the NSA chief offered the vague assertion that the data
collection has “helped thwart dozens of terrorist
events.”
Alexander maintained the surveillance is legal because it was
approved by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,
which approved 1,748 surveillance applications of the 1,789 it
received.
“I’ve heard the court is a rubber stamp,” he said. “I’m
on the other end of that table, against the table of judges that
don’t take any — I’m trying to think of a word here — from even a
four-star general. They want to make sure that what we’re doing
comports with the constitution and the law. I can tell you from
the wire brushing I’ve received, they are not a rubber
stamp.”
Alexander claimed the agency has the capability to monitor its
own employees, a somewhat odd revelation in light of a recent
claim from an NSA staffer who denied they could search staff
emails. Pro Public filed and Freedom of Information Act request
seeking emails between employees and the National Geographic
channel, which reporters suspect of airing sympathetic
documentaries on the NSA.
“There’s no central method to search an email at this time
with the way our records are set up, unfortunately,” an NSA
spokesperson said last week, a claim seemingly at odds with
Alexander’s speech.
“The assumption is our people are just out there wheeling and
dealing,” he said Wednesday. “Nothing could be further
from the truth. We have tremendous oversight over these programs.
We audit the actions of our people 100 per cent.”
Republished from: RT