NSA Chief Gets Candid On State Of US Cybersecurity

NSA Chief and head of the U.S. Cyber Command Adm. Michael Rogers sat down with the Wall Street Journal recently to discuss the ever-growing threats to cybersecurity and some of the massive attacks that impacted the U.S. in recent years.

From the Sony hack two years ago to WikiLeaks, Rogers explained that there is much that can be learned from the notable cyber events that have taken place.

“I thought the positives were great collaboration between a private company — they knew they were dealing with something. They felt they needed to reach out to the government,” Rogers said when asked about Sony’s response to the massive computer hack that rocked the entertainment world in 2014.

“They could have sat there and said to themselves, ‘We really need to minimize this. Let’s not really confront this publicly.’ They were very up front when they approached the government,” he continued.

“And we’re going, ‘Look, if you want us to provide value and insight to you, then the only way this is going to work is if we get full access to your network and your data. It’s the only way we can really generate the level of insight that I think you expect from us. I realize that that may make you uncomfortable. You’re opening your structure. You’re opening your networks. You’re opening your data. You have to be comfortable with that.’”

When questioned about the growing threat state actors, Rogers noted that nearly 60 to 65 percent of the activity the NSA sees is criminal and actually not perpetrated by nation states.

“Traditionally as a nation, we have very much differentiated between what is the role of the government and what is the role of the private sector,” he explained. “Cyber does not recognize these arbitrary lines that we have drawn. It doesn’t recognize geography. I think it is totally unrealistic to expect the private sector to withstand the onslaught of activity that is being directed against them by nation-states and other actors.”