Because the opinion that matters most is your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan, powered by cable. Now jonah Paul Nakasone the National SecurityAgency Director and Cyber Command commander speaks at the National Press club here in washington, d. C. He talks about section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act which gives the Government Authority to do targeted surveillance on foreigners outside of the United States. Authorization for this intelligence gathering tool is set to expire on december 31, 2023. This is about an hour. General nakasone has said the cybersecurity is National Security. And while the internet has givea us Global Connectivity and rapid innovation, it also leaves the United States vulnerable. Militias and often oustatesponsored cyber actors seek to exploit our new connectedness, and achieve target on our Critical Infrastructure and honor military. Since general nakasone assumed command that u. S. Cyber command in 2016 and the nationals could agency in 2018 he has seen the Threat Landscape expand and become even more complex. Over recent years it has become clear that our electrical grid, oil andr gas pipelines, and even our water supply can be vulnerable. And perhaps even the 2024 election. We are eager to hear more from general nakasone about how the nsa and u. S. Cyber command are evolving to meet these threats. Please join me in getting a warm National Press club welcome to general Paul Nakasone. [applause] good afternoon. Thank you so much for the warm welcome to the National Press club. This invitation really is very special to me, and special to me and to my guess as well. There can be no effective public dialogue and debate without a free press to inform the people, challenge decisionmakers and foster accountability. I believe in this strongly. Today, let me speak briefly about a few things that i feel are important for our nation, and then reserve time for questions. Since 2018 ive had the privilege of serving as both the commander of u. S. Cyber command and the director of the National Security agency. Both an honor and a humbling experience. Over the course of my career i have served all over the world, across the u. S. , in korea, iraq and afghanistan, in both peace and war. My journey has taken me from small units at the tactical level where you live and learn with soldiers from all backgrounds and all perspectives, to the pentagon on 9 11, and now to senior levels of our government where i advise leaders on a rapidly changing and challenging world. I am privileged to serve alongside the many women of all walks of life, civilian and military, who all share a common bond, a sworn oath to our constitution and protection of our nation. I rely on this commitment of service day in and day out as Cyber Command and nsa where in leading both organizations i have the unique perspective of seeing your contributions to our National Defense. And in my role as commander or command i am responsible for the u. S. Military operations in cyberspace which we do at the direction of the secretary of defense and the president of the United States. Our focus is on securing the department of Defense Information Networks and working with partners at home and around the world in support of u. S. National security interests. In my role as director of National Security agency, the agency supports every component of the Intelligence Community and focuses on signals intelligence and cybersecurity. Nsa is responsible for the security of our National Security systems which includes classified networks and war fighting systems. We also signals intelligence authorities to produce foreign intelligence. We operate under authority that are limited by law and overseen closely at all three branches of government. And they say is also the unquestioned world leader in making and breaking codes nsa cashman to some of the most brilliant signs mines in mathematics in four languages working everyday to protect us from foreign adversaries. It is a mission which the men and women of the nsa and Cyber Command are proud of and take extremely seriously. So what are those men and women working so hard to protect us from . Today we find ourselves in an era off strategic competition where global powers are competing economically, militarily, and diplomatically all simultaneously in a ind where the speed of technological growth is increasing , and the time for our National Leaders to make critical decisions is also decreasing. China has emerged as the pacing challenge to the United States, as the only competitor with both the intent and ability to reshape the International Order to fit its designs. It has stated its ambitions of becoming one of the worlds leading powers. China is a particularly problematic concern because we come from very different places, where as the is characterized relationship with china as a competition between two nations, china views its relations with the west from a perspective of how to correct the historical aberration of western supremacy in Global Affairs while returning china with its 400 years of history and 1. 3 n people to its role as a regional hegemon and potential global leader. What makes tiny unique is the scope, scale, the sophistication of the threat it poses. They need is for the use to be able to respond to this threat today and well into the foreseeable future. This is the generational challenge of our time. Russia is a threat to Regional Security and global stability through its unilateral disregard of International Norms and willingness to target civilians and Critical Infrastructure with both tactical and advanced weapons systems. Its illegal invasion of ukraine is a textbook example. It has also deployed Information Operations with the intent of weakening democratic institutions, election interference, being among those efforts. Finally, technology is advancing at a phenomenal speed posing a challenge to the u. S. As it races just a head of technologies with the potential to be used against us. Cyber and generative ai are prime examples. Ai has enormous capacity to up inup multiple sectors of society simultaneously, militaries, a conference, international, technological growth. It is essentially that we stay had of her global competitors in the race to understand and harness its potential, as well as protect ourselves from adversarial use. We have developed tools, technologies and processes to office confronts these threats. But at the most basic level our ability to successfully overcome these challenges or rely on the men and women both civilian and military who have chosen to serve their nation and a been entrusted with the defending it. That trust is not taken lightly by the National Security agency and cybercom workforce, and is submitted in an oath to defend the constitution and the lives and the laws of the United States for the rest of their lives. They recognize the inherent dangers to our way of life with those laws are a bridge, which is why upholding our oaths is at the very core of everything we do. At cybercom and in a similar culture of compliance to the law that pervades every level of the workforce. It means that starting from the very first day on the job, training begins on how to safely and legally perform your duties. It continues with more training every year thereafter with processes that double and triple checked the legality of your work, and with independent groups tasked solely with ensuring we dont overstep our bounds. In the very rare cases when incident does occur its reported quickly come investigated and corrected. Humans can make mistakes, but whats important is to be transparent when they do. Learnt from them, and did work hard to ensureor they dont hapn again. Ultimately the people of your Cyber Command and nsa understand the gravity of the immense responsibility placed upon them and its what an oath to the constitution to carry out their duties and the manner that you, their neighbors, friends and family would be proud of. Those duties are important and authorities like section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act are essential for our people to carry out their most Critical Missions. Section 702 has been has been described as the most transparent Surveillance Authority in the world. Let me explain what 702 is. It is a legal approval for the u. S. Government to collect communications of individual foreign intelligence targets located outside of the United States who use use electronic communication such as email and telephone. Let me say that again. Foreign targets outside of the United States. Its also important to understand that the rigorous oversight from all three branches of government. I70 believe 702 collection is te most important authority we use today, and day w in and day outo protect our nation and the American People. It contributes to 100 of the National Intelligence priority framework. 59 of the intelligence of the president s daily brief and 20 of all the intelligence that nsa collects. Let me give you a realworld example of how 702 is helping to protect americans. In 2022, drug overdoses claimed more than 100,000 american lives. Lives. That note is by far the leading cause of these overdoses affecting every corner of the nation fentanyl with a ten times the number of u. S. Service members lives lost in iraq and afghanistan. It is the worst drug crisis in our history. 702 is provided intelligence on for actors efforts to smuggle fentanyl into the u. S. And is broaden our understanding of the chinese origins of a chemical used to synthesize fentanyl. This information enables the u. S. Government to take decisive action, saving lives, because of 702. Actionable intelligence like this is part of the reason why the president s intelligencell Advisory Board called 702 the cornerstone of Intelligence Communitys ability to uncover and track threatsmm to america, and noted that 702 does not threaten the Civil Liberties of americans, so long as the right culture, processes, and oversight are in place. I can attest to the truth of the statement because every possible measure is employed to ensure 702 proper use, including daily oversight and02 review of the ue of our data automatic tools designed to prevent its from misuse and rigorous training of how to use and protect data at all times. As a result, 99 plus of the targets collected under 702 authorities at nsa occurred without incident since it was last reauthorized. At the end of the day our use of this authority is about the protection of both National Security and american Civil Liberties, and were committed to do both. It is critically important to the nation that 702 be reauthorized. It has saved lives, protected just interscope defended our war fighters overseas, and contributed to our security and the security of our lives and partners around the world. Amidst an everchanging global landscape, and as they continue to focus on and cybersecurity while cybercom focus remains on cyber operations. What we do has that changed but how we do it has. Today we account for tax and Critical Infrastructure, the proliferation of drone war for countering misinformation campaigns the target of Democratic Electoral processes and other novel threats and we have not traditionally faced. We also to keep a sharp eye on the horizon for threats we cant even imagine yet due to the explosive pace of technological advancement. Whats importantca now is how we perform our Critical Missions, and we do it by remaining agile and resilient, and by leveraging the power of partnerships. Simple truth is,. That the world in which we live in where technological change is accelerating so rapidly, no single entity, not government or otherwise, possesses all the data come all of the talent, all of the capabilities or all of the legal authorities necessary to successfully address emerging threats and opportunities. Unanticipated and complex transnational issues will require close collaboration among multiple entities in order to succeed. Our National Security, National Prosperity and National Identity will depend on our ability to adapt to an emerging future. Staying fast and agile in his everchanging future means we will need to work with others across government, academia, the public, the private sector, and with our partners and allies around the world. But me give you a few examplesxa of the things we are doing with our partners. Lu an illustration of the bones we place on on a partnerships, t year nsa and industry cyber analysts sitting sidebyside at our Cyber Collaboration Center identified a potential cyber incident by gnome come Chinese Government hackers against one of our defense in such a base partners. By working closely with our Industry Partners are able toto short order to identify the nature of the threat, a zero day vulnerability in some citric software. Work with citrix devise a patch in the issued a a notificatioo potential victim simultaneously with a patch release before the chinese were able to b begin exploiting the malicious acts of. Within days of notification go now, the number of Vulnerable Services across the u. S. And is operated by european and allied partners dropped by almost 25 . Which is impacted scale. This entire operation occurred solely because of nnsas collaboration with our Industry Partners. Another example of the importance of partnerships are our hunt Forward Operation teams would support around the world at the request of our partners to assist them against malicious cyber actors. Putting our Cyber Warriors from u. S. Cyber command sidebyside with our foreign partners cyber specialist provides us with unique accesses to partners that works and skills helping them better understandr the Cyber Threats they may face while also helping us improve our own skills and enlarging our knowledge of our adversaries operations and intentions here to these hunt Forward Operations have been a resounding success at sorting line cyber activities by our mutual adversaries. In ukraine and ellsworth having to put 51 times, 24 7 countries on 77 networks, we are having an impact. Through these efforts and with our partners approval, cybercom has exposed more than 90, 90 Malicious Software samples which caused these cyber actors time, money, and effort. Because of our relationship and presents with our partners approval we havee the ability to bring malware samples back to the United States for analysis when found, share them broadly with government and private sectorsh partners, and help ense our Critical Infrastructure is better protected. With the strength and breadth of the partnerships that aread increasingly expanded to build to provide critical and actionable information and timely manner to our partners, we areio wellpositioned to address our future challenges. Artificial intelligence has been in the news a lot lately and is on the might of our National Leaders and certainly of the public. I will be increasingly consequential for National Security and diplomatic, military, technological and economic matters for our country and our allies and partners. All three of our highest level National Security strategies emphasize this, the National Security studies, the National Defense strategy, the National Intelligence strategy. Today, the u. S. Leads in this critical area but this leak should not be taken for granted. Our adversaries who have for decades use that and exportation of our intellectual property to advance their i