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"Nobody is Listening to Your Phone Calls." Really? A Debate and Discussion on the NSA's Activities

Presented at Black Hat USA 2014, Aug. 7, 2014, 2:15 p.m. (60 minutes)

"We failed to connect the dots. And so, we had to come up with a way of helping to stop attacks." - General Keith B. Alexander, Former Director of NSA, at Black Hat USA 2013. There's been lot of hyperbole and misinformation about the NSA's collection of Americans' phone calls, emails, address books, buddy lists, calling records, online video game chats, financial documents, browsing history, video chats, text messages, and calendar data. Currently, a debate rages involving privacy advocates, the Congressional House and Senate Committees on Judiciary and Intelligence, and the Intelligence Community about the NSA's activities. Join the debate by hearing former Staff Director of the House Intelligence Committee and current Managing Director of Beacon Global Strategies, Michael Allen, debate and discuss these issues with Mark Jaycox, a Legislative Analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation who specializes in user privacy and surveillance law. The conversation will include an overview of the NSA's activities, argue positions for and against the activities, and end with questions from the audience.

Presenters:

  • Jamil Jaffer - George Mason University School of Law
    Jamil N. Jaffer served as a Senior Counsel at the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) from 2011-2013. In that position, Mr. Jaffer served as the lead drafter of the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) and worked on issues ranging from National Security Agency (NSA) oversight to cybersecurity and counterterrorism matters. Prior to joining the HPSCI, Mr. Jaffer served in a number of positions at the White House and the Department of Justice (DOJ), including as an Associate Counsel to the President and as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in DOJ's National Security Division, where he worked on the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI). Mr. Jaffer currently serves as a senior Senate staffer and as an Adjunct Professor of Law and Director of the Homeland and National Security Law Program at the George Mason University School of Law.
  • J. Michael Allen
  • Mark Jaycox - Electronic Frontier Foundation
    Mark is a Legislative Analyst for EFF. His issues include user privacy, civil liberties, surveillance law, and cyber security. Currently, Mark is working on legislative efforts to reform the National Security Agency and update surveillance law, like the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Apart from his legislative efforts, one of his upcoming research projects focuses on the use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for computer network operations. He was educated at Reed College and the University of Oxford (Wadham College), and has been featured both on and offline in publications like the Guardian, the New York Times, and ProPublica.

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