Cyberspy Education

NSA director General Keith Alexander addresses the audience at ICCS (Daniel P. Tucker)

http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2013/aug/08/nsa-director-defends-surveillance-programs-
cybersecurity-conference/

NSA Director Defends Surveillance Programs at Cybersecurity Conference

Thursday, August 08, 2013

By Daniel P. Tucker : Associate Producer, WNYC News

As the privacy debate continues following revelations about the federal government's surveillance programs, the director of the National Security Agency is defending his organization's tactics.

Speaking at an annual cybersecurity conference at Fordham University on Thursday, General Keith Alexander said privacy is safeguarded by the constitution and that the methods used by the NSA do not constitute "domestic spying."

"No one has willingly or knowingly disobeyed the law or tried to invade your civil liberties or privacy," he told a room of industry insiders at the fourth annual International Conference on Cyber Security. "There were no mistakes like that at all. I think that's important to understand."

Alexander added that Congress could help improve cybersecurity by passing legislation that dictates how the private sector can work with agencies like the CIA, FBI and NSA to defend against cyber attacks.

Network of Spies

Keynote and Distinguished Speakers

Gen. Keith B. Alexander
Director
National Security Agency Commander, CYBERCOM

Preet Bharara
United States Attorney
Southern District of New York, United States Department of Justice, New York, NY USA

Michael Chertoff
Former Secretary
United States Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC USA

Jared Cohen
Founder and Director
Google Ideas, New York, NY

Joseph M. Demarest
Assistant Director
Cyber Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington, DC USA

Ruby B. Lee, Ph.D.
Forrest G. Hamrick Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ USA

Ian Levy
Technical Director
United Kingdom's Government Communications Headquarters, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire UK

Kevin Mandia
Chief Executive Officer
Mandiant, Washington, DC USA

Lisa Monaco
Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, Deputy National Security Advisor
The White House, Washington, DC USA

Robert S. Mueller
Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Washington, DC USA

George O. Strawn
Director, Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program
National Coordination Office, Washington, DC USA

Plenary and Parallel Speakers

Hira Agrawal
Senior Scientist
Applied Communications Systems

Rich Baich
Executive Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer
Wells Fargo, Charlotte, NC USA

Sean Barnum
Security Principal
The MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA USA

Elisa Bertino
Professor of Computer Science
Purdue University

Richard Carback
Principal Researcher and Security Engineer
Charles Stark Draper Laboratories

Robin DeStefano
Co-Lead
Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Five (CNCI-5)

Andre Dornbusch
Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt)
Wiesbaden, Hesse DEU

Stephen R. Flatley
Senior Examiner
Computer Analysis Response Team, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York, NY USA

Gary J. Gagnon
Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer
The MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA USA

Melissa Hathaway
Hathaway Global Strategies, Washington, DC USA

Kristin Heckman, D. Sc.
Lead Scientist
The MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA USA

S.S. Iyengar
Director of Research
NuLogix

Merike Kaeo
Security Evangelist
IID

David Knox
Vice President, National Security Group
Oracle, Redwood City, CA USA

Martin Libicki, Ph.D.
Senior Management Scientist
RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA USA

Bruce Maggs, Ph.D.
Professor of Computer Science, Duke University, Durham, NC USA and
Vice President for Research, Akamai Technologies, Cambridge, MA USA

Matthew McCabe
Senior Vice President
Marsh

Petros Mouchtaris, Ph, D.
Chief Operating Officer
Applied Communications Science, Basking Ridge, NJ USA

Jonathan Perlstein
Special Agent
Federal Bureau of Investigation

Natalie Runyon
Chief Security Officer
Thomson Reuters, New York, NY USA

Marek Rusinkiewicz, Ph.D.
Professor of Computer Science
Florida International University, University Park, FL USA

Kathryn Scott
Special Agent
Federal Bureau of Investigation

Antonio Scurlock
Co-Lead
Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Five (CNCI-5)

Shane Snyder
Computer Engineer
U.S. Army CERDEC

Tony Spinelli
Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer
Equifax, Atlanta, GA USA

Sandra Stanar-Johnson
NSA/CSS Representative
Department of Homeland Security

Frank Stech, Ph. D.
Principal Investigator, Research Projects
The MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA USA

John Stewart
Senior Vice President, Chief Security Officer, Global Government and Corporate Security
Cisco Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA USA

Edward M. Stroz
Co-President
Stroz Friedberg, New York, NY USA

Andras Szakal
Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
IBM, Armonk, NY USA

Emily Vacher
Manager, Trust and Safety
Facebook, Menlo Park, CA USA

Anthony Vigilante
Managing Director and Chief of Technology
MacKay Shields, New York, NY USA

Mauro Vignati
Reporting and Analysis Centre for Information Assurance MELANI
Schwarztorstrasse, Bern CHE

Marisa Viveros
Vice President, Cyber Security Innovation
IB

Seated on stage from left, the Director of the National Security Agency (NSA), Gen. Keith B. Alexander, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John O. Brennan and director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Robert S. Mueller watch as President of Fordham University Rev. Joseph Michael McShane addresses a forum from the podium during the International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS) on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013, at Fordham University in New York. Photo: Bebeto Matthews

Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) Gen. Keith B. Alexander, left, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John O. Brennan, center, and director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Robert S. Mueller, right, attend a forum during the International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS) on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013, at Fordham University in New York. Photo: Bebeto Matthews

Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John O. Brennan, left, and director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Robert S. Mueller attend a forum during the International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS) on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013, at Fordham University in New York. Photo: Bebeto Matthews

Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Robert S. Mueller speaks during a forum at the International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS) on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013, at Fordham University in New York. Photo: Bebeto Matthews

Gen. Keith B. Alexander, head of the U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, headlined Fordham’s International Conference on Cyber Security on Jan. 12. Photo by Chris Taggart