{"id":341115,"date":"2017-05-17T07:07:30","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T23:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1491144"},"modified":"2017-05-17T07:07:30","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T23:07:30","slug":"after-wannacry-ex-nsa-director-defends-agencies-holding-exploits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/after-wannacry-ex-nsa-director-defends-agencies-holding-exploits\/","title":{"rendered":"After WannaCry, ex-NSA director defends agencies holding exploits"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not much more topical than cyber security right now. And who better to talk about it\u00a0than former director of the NSA and ex-chief of the Central Security Service, general Keith Alexander?<\/p>\n

On stage here at TechCrunch Disrupt New York, Alexander discussed\u00a0the WannaCry(pt) ransomware that disrupted systems in multiple countries\u00a0on Friday \u2014 and was only stopped by accident after a security researcher registered a web domain that had been hard coded into it as a kill switch.<\/p>\n

Alexander warned there would be more such attacks this year, and urged industry to work with government to try to defend against global cyber threats.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is just one of many that we\u2019re going to see,\u201d he said. \u201cMany people said this is the year of ransomware.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexander was asked how much responsibility the NSA bears for the WannaCrypt virus \u2014 given reports\u00a0have indicated the virus\u00a0utilizes an exploit that was stolen from the NSA.<\/p>\n

Yesterday Microsoft also explicitly called out\u00a0government agencies<\/a> for undermining global cyber security by stockpiling exploits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NSA didn\u2019t use the WannaCry, criminals did \u2013- someone stole it,\u201d he\u00a0shot back on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis WannaCry\u00a0starts to split [government agencies and industry]\u00a0apart but our nation needs industry and government to work together,\u201d he\u00a0added.<\/p>\n

He also implicitly defended the NSA\u2019s use of exploits \u2014 saying the agency needs \u201ccapabilities\u201d\u00a0to allow it to know what adversaries are doing, and should not be required to release all the exploits it finds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to have tools,\u201d he said. \u201c[NSA]\u00a0don\u2019t hoard exploits; they release\u00a090+ percent of what they get but to go after a terrorist you need an exploit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexander\u2019s big pitch was for government and industry to\u00a0work together to try to de-risk these intelligence agency \u201ctools\u201d \u2014 i.e. to patch up and firefight critical scenarios whereby an intelligence agency exploit has been leaked and is in the hands of cyber criminals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Microsoft actually put a patch out in March \u2014 how do you make sure that those things go\u00a0out? And is there a way that government and industry can work together so that those things are done seamlessly,\u201d he suggested. \u201cAnd the answer\u2019s yes. And should we do that? Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexander also discussed his views on Trump\u2019s executive order on cyber security, and the ongoing reform of Section 702 of FISA.<\/p>\n

You can watch the full interview in the below video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" General Keith Alexander has warned there will be more ransomware attacks this year, and urged industry to work with government to try to defend against global cyber threats. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-341115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}