Gen. Paul Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency and Central Security Service chief, said Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has provided authorities to enable NSA to gather intelligence data on some high-priority targets.
“FISA Section 702 is irreplaceable,” Nakasone, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and a 2023 Wash100 awardee, said during his keynote remarks at a virtual roundtable discussion. NSA reported on Nakasone’s comments Thursday.
“It is focused and limited, yet agile enough to address national security threats in an ever-changing technological and threat environment,” he added.
Nakasone discussed how FISA Section 702 has enabled the U.S. government to identify ransomware attacks perpetrated by foreign threat actors on U.S. critical infrastructure and examine the strategic intentions of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
“This intelligence positioned the government to respond to and mitigate these events, and in some instances prevent significant attacks on U.S. networks,” he noted.
Nakasone also cited how privacy and civil liberties are protected under FISA Section 702.