National Security Agency (NSA) Director Gen. Keith Alexander said that the NSA would soon be moving to cut 90 percent of the system administrator positions that it has contracted out—positions like the one previously held by whistleblower/leaker Edward Snowden—by moving to an automated cloud infrastructure. He also admitted that there may have been "compliance issues" in the way the NSA handled data collection.

The comments came as Alexander spoke on a panel with FBI Director Robert Mueller and CIA Director John Brennan in New York Thursday at the International Conference on Cybersecurity. "What we've done is put people in loops of transferring data and securing networks—doing what machines are probably better at doing," Alexander said. Moving to an automated cloud provisioning system, he explained, would cut the number of hands that touch the NSA's internal systems and address vulnerabilities—such as a sysadmin loading data onto a thumb drive and walking out with it. "It would also address the number of system administrators we have," he said. "Not fast enough—but we plan to reduce the number of system administrators by 90 percent to make networks more defensible and secure."

In regard to the risk to civil liberties posed by the NSA's surveillance, Alexander said, "I will tell you that, as you look at the debate that's going on right now—yup, people make mistakes. But one thing you'll find: no one has willfully or knowingly disobeyed the law or tried to invade your civil liberties or privacy."