Cybersecurity hinges on surveillance understanding, NSA director says

The effort to protect the US from cyberthreats requires a better public understanding of government surveillance, National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander said during a conference hosted by the Telecommunications Industry Association.

“We’ve got to change the rhetoric on media leaks and fix the trust factor,” he said, referring to this year’s leaks about the U.S. government collecting phone data and electronic communications. “We’re not going to move much forward with all of that hanging out there,” he said. Gen Alexander called for cybersecurity legislation that would allow the government and the private sector to share information about cyberthreats. He said he wishes the intelligence community could be more transparent. “I would love to be transparent, if only the good guys would come into the room,” he said, but "we don't have a way of doing that."