National Security Agency director Michael Rogers said Monday the intelligence agency needs "timely" access to data in any program which replaces one ruled illegal by an appeals court. Asked about last week's court ruling on the agency's massive bulk data collection program, Rogers said it is not his role to set policy, but that he hopes any new program will allow the NSA quick access to data to find terrorist threats.
"What concerns me the most is timely access to data, because if we are going to generate outcomes in a process that takes weeks and months it doesn't really generate the kind of value we need," Rogers said at a cybersecurity forum at George Washington University. "We need to come up with a process that lets us generate insights and access the data in a much quicker time frame."
The comments were the first from the NSA chief since a ruling Thursday from a US appeals court that the agency's massive collection of phone records of Americans goes far beyond what Congress authorised. Rogers said his agency carries out the "legal framework" that is "developed by Congress and tested by the courts" but also argued that the bulk surveillance "generates value" for the intelligence agency.