A high-ranking official of the National Security Agency said in a talk here Wednesday that the electronic surveillance agency is working to improve its public relations in the wake of Edward Snowden’s damaging leaks.

Jonathan Darby, the NSA’s deputy chief of cybersecurity operations, said the agency realized it had to “get out and talk more about what we do” after Snowden in 2013 revealed ways in which U.S. spy agencies collect phone, email and other communications.

Darby contended that most of the Snowden-related stories in 2013 were “twisted or dead-out wrong,” and he pushed back on a movie glorifying the former NSA contractor’s actions, saying the leaks put people’s lives at risk.

Snowden fled to Moscow in June 2013 after he was identified as the source of information several newspapers printed about previously undisclosed NSA surveillance programs. Snowden remains in Russia, where he was granted asylum until 2020.

Bound by law

Before an audience of 180 at a Lancaster Rotary Club luncheon, Darby portrayed the NSA as scrupulously law-abiding and completely accountable to Congress and the courts.

“If the law does not affirmatively give us the authority to take an action, we can not and we will not do it,” said Darby, a Montana native who joined the NSA in 1983 as a foreign language analyst. “We do not independently decide what to collect.”

He said the $11-billion NSA is a joint military-civilian spy agency with the dual mission of intercepting foreign communications and protecting U.S. government communications.

“This spy agency spies. That’s what we do, legally and within policy guidelines,” he said.

Darby stressed that the NSA does not spy on Americans at home or abroad unless a federal judge approves it.

Also, if the communications of an American are intercepted incidentally through the valid targeting of a foreigner, the American’s communication is masked, he said. The procedures, in place for decades, have government and court approval, he said.

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Stopping terrorists

Darby defended a program, up for Congressional renewal this year, that allows the NSA to compel a U.S. communications company to turn over communications of noncitizens outside of the United States.

Saying the program prevents terrorist attacks, Darby pointed to the 2009 arrest of a man who planned a bombing on a New York City subway.

Darby pushed back against the perception that the NSA indiscriminately vacuums up all communications around the world.

He said the quantity of data the NSA collects is analogous to a dime on the floor of a basketball court.

Darby said NSA employees take an oath to defend the Constitution, including its guarantees of civil liberties.

“Some will say that (strict oversight and legal restrictions) ties one arm behind our back,” Darby said. “As an NSAer, I say, ‘Damn straight.’ That’s fine. That’s who we are as a country.”

Russian hacks

Asked about allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Darby said the NSA joined with the FBI and CIA in coming to that assessment.

“It goes back to, ‘Here’s the facts,’ ” Darby said. “We laid out the facts.”

On cybersecurity, Darby said the country increasingly understands the threats to the nation’s computer networks and that existing security measures aren’t adequate for the long term.