NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’

By Gideon Swift | Published: March 11, 2009

The government’s national cybersecurity efforts would be in “grave peril” if they were dominated by the intelligence community, said Amit Yoran, former head of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security Division.

Yoran told a House subcommittee on Tuesday that although the Department of Homeland Security, which currently oversees the government’s cybersecurity efforts, has demonstrated “inefficiency and leadership failure” in those efforts, moving the cyber mission to the National Security Agency “would be ill-advised” due to the agency’s lack of transparency.

Two weeks ago, Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair told the House intelligence committee that the NSA should take over government cybersecurity duties, because the agency has the smarts and the skills for the job.

But Yoran, who served at one time as CEO of In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, said a cyber program overseen by the NSA would be over-classified and lack adequate oversight and review, which is needed to gain the trust of the public and private-sector partners who will be needed to secure the nation’s infrastructure.

“One of the hard lessons learned from the Terrorist Surveillance Program is that such a limited review can lead to ineffective legal vetting of a program,” Yoran said. “The cyber mission cannot be plagued by the same flaws as the TSP.”

Yoran’s comments echoed those made by Rod Beckstrom, the DHS’ current cyber chief who tendered his resignation last week in part over concerns about the NSA assuming a leading role in the government’s cybersecurity plan.