Edward Snowden's actions in leaking sensitive and confidential U.S. surveillance strategy and data are hurting the country's counterterrorism efforts around the globe. The revelations have left a negative impact on U.S. spying strategies, says the National Security Agency chief.
Mike Rogers, NSA director, says the former agency contractor and whistleblower's public sharing of NSA activities left a "material impact" on efforts to track terrorist groups and terrorism incidents and created "blind spots" in surveillance efforts.
"Do I think we have lost capabilities we had prior to the revelations? Yes," said Rogers.
"It has had a material impact on our ability to generate insights as to what terrorist groups around the world are doing," he added. "Anyone [who] thinks this has not had an impact ... doesn't know what they are talking about."
The NSA director made his comments during a cybersecurity conference on Monday, Feb. 23, sponsored by the New America Foundation, which was attended by security and technology experts.
Rogers defended his agency's spying and surveillance tactics in 2013, which included bulk collection of phone data records -- one of the many NSA activities Snowden's leaked material brought to light. Rogers, however, would not discuss recent allegations regarding the NSA using spyware tools.
The NSA chief is lobbying lawmakers and security organizations to help build what he calls a "legal framework" that would grant the NSA and other government security agencies legal access to encrypted communications in order to protect networks that may be targeted by cyber criminals and terrorist organizations. He believes there is a real need to legally monitor networks and communications that may be under the domain of carriers and technology companies.
The data access and network monitoring are not, however, going over well with privacy advocates or technology companies trying to balance consumer and user privacy and security needs with governmental demands regarding citizen data and activities on the Internet.
Snowden fled the U.S. and is now living in Russia. His leaked documents and revelations regarding NSA spying activities have ignited hot debate regarding how much private data access a government should have in the name of national security. A film on Snowden's actions won an Academy Award on Sunday night.
Regarding the highly publicized network attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, supposedly instigated by North Korea due to a Sony-produced film with a plot line to kill dictator Kim Jong Un, Rogers said that while he expected such a cybersecurity attack, he didn't see it happening in the entertainment industry.
"I fully expected, sadly in some ways, that in my time as the commander of United States Cyber Command the Department of Defense would be tasked with attempting to defend the nation against those kind of attacks," he said. "I didn't realize that it would be against a motion picture company, to be honest."
