NSA Choice Is Navy Expert on Cyberwar

In nominating Vice Adm. Michael S. Rogers as the new director of the National Security Agency, President Barack Obama chose a recognized expert in the new art of designing cyberweapons, but someone with no public track record in addressing the kinds of privacy concerns that have put the agency under a harsh spotlight.

Obama’s decision to pick a military officer, rather than a civilian versed in civil liberties issues, was made weeks ago, when he rejected his own advisory panel’s recommendation that the NSA and the United States Cyber Command have separate leaders. By law the command, the Pentagon’s four-year-old cyberwarfare organization, must be headed by a military officer. The result is that Admiral Rogers, now the head of Fleet Cyber Command, the Navy’s fast-growing cyberunit, will find himself in the public cross hairs in a way he has never been during a 33-year military career. Starting with his confirmation hearings, expected to begin as soon as February, the admiral will be pressed on how he would carry out a series of changes that President Obama announced two weeks ago.

As it made its widely expected nomination of Admiral Rogers, the administration announced its choice for deputy director of the agency: Rick Ledgett, the NSA official who has been heading the task force assessing the damage done by the revelations of Edward J. Snowden, the former agency contractor. It will clearly be Ledgett’s job to put in place a series of internal changes designed to prevent a repeat of what officials have called the biggest leak of secret data in American history and to deal with its continuing effects.