Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act should be renewed to support and protect the critical national security partnerships between government and industry, said Letitia Long, chair of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance.
The law, which compels the assistance of communication companies in acquiring intelligence data on foreign persons outside the U.S., is vital to defending domestic critical infrastructure, borders and information networks, Long wrote in a commentary published Wednesday on Federal News Network.
Section 702, which is set to expire this month, has reportedly helped the private sector strengthen their cybersecurity capabilities through government-backed identification of online threats and hackers. The law has been instrumental in discovering malware signatures, network vulnerabilities and attack techniques that target critical infrastructure, Long said.
“In the modern strategic competition environment, nation-state adversaries will continue employing innovative tools in cyberspace to penetrate American critical infrastructure and other sensitive networks,” according to Long, a Wash100 awardee. “To provide an adequate defense of both private and public sector infrastructure key to our national security, Section 702 must be renewed — and in a form that maintains, rather than diminishes, the essential value that it provides.”