NSA Chief: U.S. Needs to Improve Its Cyber-Offense

The United States is good at playing defense when it comes to cyberwarfare. But Washington needs to get better at going on the offensive.

That’s the message Adm. Michael Rogers, director of the U.S. National Security Agency, delivered to lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday morning. Rogers said U.S. hackers are increasingly capable of locating and warding off cyber-assaults. However, they’re lacking in the ability to take the fight to America’s virtual enemies.

Rogers told the panel he is working “to accelerate the work we are doing to keep on schedule, but I can promise you that will not be easy.”

“We are already hard pressed to find qualified personnel to man our … rosters, to get them cleared, and to get them trained and supported,” Rogers said.

The U.S. cyber-chief said the world was at a “tipping point” in cyberwarfare. Attacks are increasing in frequency, and becoming more high-profile, such as North Korea’s hack of Sony Pictures last November and an Iranian hack of the Sands Casino a month later.

The good news, Rogers said, is that the United States is quickly improving its ability to locate and repel breaches of federal networks, including two recent attacks on U.S. military networks called Heartbleed and Shellshock.

“Thanks to the efforts we have made in recent years, our responses by contrast were comparatively quick, thorough, and effective, and in both cases they helped inform corresponding efforts on the civilian side of the federal government,” Rogers said.

The bad news is that the country is at what Rogers called a cyber “tipping point” when playing good defense won’t be enough. He said that without additional investment, U.S. cyber-capabilities would fall behind international rivals like Russia and China.

Lawmakers then called on the Pentagon’s cyberagency to improve its own hacking capabilities — and to do so in a high-profile way to deter attacks against American government and business networks. Rogers is head of both the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command.

The Sony hack “will breed future — and more significant — attacks and has exposed serious flaws in the administration’s cyber-strategy,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the committee’s chair. He called on Rogers to create a viable deterrent to prevent similar attacks in the future.

Photo Credit: Alex Wong