Panelists address role of NSA, public in cyber security issues

        On Thursday morning, June 12, the American Enterprise Institute hosted a conference on cyber security. The general consensus among panelists and speakers, who ranged from Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, to Keith Alexander, former director of the National Security Agency, to Maureen Ohlhausen, Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, is that the American public is generally uninformed on security issues and how to best protect themselves. 

"No one wants their identity stolen," said panelist Robert Dix, Vice President of Juniper Networks. "We have a responsibility to educate people on how to protect themselves in cyberspace." 

Ohlhausen said that the FTC's website offers information on how to keep data secure, but Wheeler said that cyber adversaries do not fit a particular profile, and that technology is constantly changing. This poses a problem for security. 

"Our cyber adversaries worldwide are right at our virtual doors," he said. "They are waiting to break in. We live in an age where a few smart 20-year-olds in somebody's garage can render standard technology obsolete. Tackling the challenges of cyber security will require a joint effort." 

The panelists were at odds as to whether or not government organizations are working together to try to protect the nation's electronic data. "We don't have an agreement on the handoff between Homeland Security and national security," said Dix. But Christopher Painter, Coordinator for Cyber Issues at the Department of State, said that the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and FBI all work together to respond to threats. 

Alexander, who stepped down as director of the NSA in March of this year, opened his remarks with a simple statements that demonstrated just how much data is exchanged electronically. "If Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest country in the world," he said. "And anyone who has access to Google has access to more information than the president of the United States did in the year 1990." 

One of the panelists, retired General Michael Hayden, addressed the stories surrounding former NSA employee Edward Snowden. "We don't say 'Snowden' at the NSA," he said. "We use the phrase, 'He Who Must Not Be Named.' He's a traitor to his country who has caused damage to our military readiness." Hayden said that 90 percent of information stolen by Snowden was of a military and tactical nature. 

Congressman Mike Rogers (R-MI), Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, addressed the role of the NSA and its coverage by the media. 

"Every day there's an article that isn't exactly right about leaks coming from the NSA," he said. "The NSA does not listen to or monitor our domestic networks. That's against the law. There is no domestic surveillance program." 

Several of the panelists pointed out that domestic probing is illegal in the United States, but that the security agency can, and does, try to prevent cyber terrorism with foreign connections. "I ran the NSA for six years. We spy too," he said. "We spy to keep you safe."