Buffeted by New Disclosures, NSA Chief Defends Surveillance Programs at Black Hat

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/07/alexander-blackhat-keynote/

By Kim Zetter
Threat Level
Wired.com
07.31.13

LAS VEGAS -- Amid new revelations today about another expansive NSA 
surveillance program, agency chief Gen. Keith Alexander appeared before an 
audience of security professionals to defend his bulk collection of phone 
records and other data.

Although Alexander promised to "answer every question to the full extent 
possible" he took no open questions from the audience and only answered a 
few preselected questions that had been chosen from a survey sent to 
attendees of the Black Hat security conference.

Alexander was addressing surveillance programs recently disclosed by the 
Guardian from documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. 
Hours before he took the podium, the newspaper published a top secret 
PowerPoint deck detailing the NSA’s XKeystore program, which maintains a 
rolling archive of internet traffic vacuumed from 150 points around the 
world. According to the slides, NSA analysts can query the system using a 
broad range of selectors, from specific information like a target’s email 
address, to category searches that might produce, for example, “all the 
Microsoft Excel spreadsheets containing MAC addresses coming out of Iraq.”

Facing occasional hecklers from the audience, Alexander asserted that the 
surveillance programs have been mischaracterized by the media and others 
and that as a result the reputation of NSA workers has been tarnished. 
Extensive oversight from Congress and the courts, as well as technical 
protections in place -- including internal auditing -- prevent NSA workers 
from abusing their surveillance capabilities.

[...]

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