Testimony of
Admiral Michael S. Rogers, USN
Commander, U.S. Cyber Command
Director, National Security Agency
before the

Senate Armed Services Committee
13 September 2016

Chairman McCain, Ranking Member Reed, and Members of the Committee, thank you
for inviting me. It is a distinct honor and privilege to appear before you today. I appreciate this
opportunity to Speak to you about the current communications environment, including the wide
availability of strong and its impact on the National Security Agency as we conduct
our foreign intelligence and information assurance missions. When we last met on 12 July, I
outlined several of these challenges to the Committee, and today I look forward to discussing
those challenges so that the American people are provided the greatest amount of information

possible on this topic.

When I use the term I am referring to a means to protect data from any access
except by those who are intended or authorized to have it. is usually accomplished by
combining random data with the data you want to protect. The random data is generated by
mathematical algorithm and uses secret information called a key in the generation. Without

- the key, you cannot unlock the and access the data.

First and foremost, you should know that NSA supports the use of 
is fundamental to the protection of everyone?s data as it travels across the global network. NSA,
through its Information Assurance mission, sets the standards for the use of within the
Department of Defense. We understand rely on it ourselves, and set the standards for

others in the government to use it properly to protect national security systems. At the same time,

 presents an ever-increasing challenge to our foreign intelligence mission. The easy
availability of strong by those who wish to harm our citizens, our government, and

our allies is a threat to national security.

As you well know, the threat environment both in cyberspaCe and in the physical world
is constantly evolving, and we must keep pace in order to provide our policy makers and war
?ghters the foreign intelligence they need to keep us safe. Terrorists? tactics, techniques, and
procedures continue to evolve. Those who would seek to harm us use the same Internet, the same
mobile communications devices, and the same social media platforms that law-abiding citizens
around the world use. The trend is clear, terrorists are becoming more savvy about protecting

their communications including through the use of strong 

NSA has not stood still in response to this changing landscape. We are making
investments in technologies and capabilities designed to help us address this challenge and last
I year, we started a process to better position NSA to face these challenges. It?s premised on the
idea that as good as NSA is at its foreign intelligence and its information assurance missions,
the world will continue to change. The goal is therefore to change as well in order to ensure we
will be as effective tomorrow as we are today. The nation counts on NSA to generate insights
into what is happening in the world around us, what should be of concern to our nation?s
security, the safety and well-being of our citizens, and of our friends and allies. We asked
ourselves: how do we continue to generate the same level of information assurance or foreign
intelligence or computer network defense insight given these changes? We see technology
fundamentally changing the proliferation of strong across the Internet and mobile

devices is just one part of that change.

I told my team that I wanted us to think about what 2025 will look like and how we can
better position NSA for that future. We call this effort NSA in the 21St Century, or NSA21. As
we look out to 2025, we see technology fundamentally changing in a variety of ways.
tends to be getting a lot of attention at the moment, but the nature of technology?s
change is so much broader than that. It?s It?s the Internet of Things. It?s the

increased interconnectivity that is being built into every facet of our lives.

We have a challenge before us. We?re watching sophisticated adversaries change their
communication pro?les in ways that enable them to hide information relating to their
involvement in things such as criminal behavior, terrorist planning, malicious cyber intrusions,
and even cyber attacks. Right now technology enables them to communicate in a way that is
increasingly problematic for NSA to acquire critical foreign intelligence needed to protect the

nation or for law enforcement of?cers to defend our nation from criminal activity.

The question then becomes, so what?s the best way to deal with that? is
foundational to the future. And anyone who thinks we are just going to walk away from that, I
think, is totally unrealistic. The challenge becomes, given the premise that is
foundational to the future, what's the best way for us to ensure the protection of information, the
privacy and civil liberties of our citizens, and the production of the foreign intelligence necessary

to ensure their protection and safety? All three are incredibly important to us as a nation.

Thank you. I look forward to your questions.