April 17, 2009
Control of Cybersecurity Becomes Divisive Issue
By JAMES RISEN and ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has been campaigning to lead the government’s rapidly growing cybersecurity programs, raising privacy and civil liberties concerns among some officials who fear that the move could give the spy agency too much control over government computer networks.
The Obama administration is expected to complete an internal cybersecurity review on Friday and may publicly announce its new computer-security strategy as early as next week, White House officials said Thursday. That plan will determine the scope of cybersecurity efforts throughout the federal government, they said, as well as which agencies will take leading roles in protecting the government’s computer systems.
The security agency’s interest in taking over the dominant role has met resistance, including the resignation of the Homeland Security Department official who was until last month in charge of coordinating cybersecurity efforts throughout the government.
Rod Beckstrom, who resigned in March as director of the National Cyber Security Center at the Homeland Security Department, said in an interview that he feared that the N.S.A.’s push for a greater role in guarding the government’s computer systems could give it the power to collect and analyze every e-mail message, text message and Google search conducted by every employee in every federal agency.
Mr. Beckstrom said he believed that an intelligence service that is supposed to focus on foreign targets should not be given so much control over the flow of information within the United States government. To detect threats against the computer infrastructure — including hackers, viruses and intrusions by foreign agents and terrorists — cybersecurity guardians must have virtually unlimited access to networks. Mr. Beckstrom argues that those responsibilities should be divided among agencies.
“I have very serious concerns about the concentration of too much power in one agency,” he said. “Power over information is so important, and it is so difficult to monitor, that we need to have checks and balances.”
Government officials have acknowledged that the agency has gone beyond the broad limits set by Congress last year for intercepting telephone and e-mail messages of Americans. Leading Democratic and Republican lawmakers and civil liberties groups voiced strong concerns Thursday after The New York Times reported the breach.