Brennan: Government 'cannot just hope' private sector will protect digital domain

CIA Director John Brennan said he believes that the digital space provides a challenge to governance models that is fundamentally new in human history and that the U.S. government needs to do more to meet the challenge.

"We have known for decades, centuries, if not millennia what the role of governance is in the physical space -- on our streets, seaports, airports, whatever," Brennan said in a Sept. 14 appearance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. But the digital world, "which does not respect sovereign boundaries and which the government does not own or control and which is increasingly limitless," is another matter.

In some ways, Brennan's stark views about the digital transformation aren't surprising. He has reorganized his agency and created a Directorate of Digital Innovation to improve the use of technology in intelligence collection and nurture a new generation of tech-savvy leaders.

Brennan offered support to FBI Director James Comey for raising the issue of how commercial encryption often stymies law enforcement agencies' access to the communications of criminal and terrorist suspects, even under lawful court order.

"This needs to be the premier national discussion and debate going forward," Brennan said. "What is the role of government in this digital domain, in this cyber environment that is owned and operated 90 percent by the private sector?"

He added that he foresees an "unprecedented partnership between the government and the private sector because there's not a government solution to this."

Furthermore, "if our way of life, if our country is going to be dependent on the security, the reliability, the resilience of this environment, the government cannot just hope that all the various private-sector actors are going to fulfill their responsibilities," Brennan said.

He cited industrial control systems and critical infrastructure as elements that are particularly prone to attack and manipulation. "The government needs to be able to protect [them]," he said.

Brennan takes the view that the debate is being distorted and exaggerated on both sides, and he wants to reach a consensus on the role of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the rest of government in policing and protecting the digital space.

"Before we face a devastating event that really is going to...vividly demonstrate to everyone just how dependent we are on that [digital] environment, we need to have a real, true national debate on this," Brennan said.

He backs a national commission that would take a comprehensive look at the issue from all sides and make recommendations on how to proceed.

"There needs to be an understanding that if we're going to protect privacy and civil liberties, which is what this country is founded upon, we need to understand and have a general agreement and consensus on what the role of government is in protecting that environment and what are going to be the boundaries, the limits, the laws that are going to undergird that," Brennan said.