Napolitano: Military agency will be able to help civilian cybersecurity

The Defense Department's supersecret National Security Agency can be used "appropriately" on civilian cybersecurity matters, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.

Sec Napolitano said the an agreement between the military and Homeland Security, announced this month, takes privacy and civil liberties into account. "We're not going to have two NSAs, we're going to have one NSA that can appropriately be used for defense purposes but also appropriately used for civilian purposes," Sec Napolitano told the National Symposium on Homeland Security and Defense. "That means that we have to, on the civilian side, be particularly cognizant of privacy issues, of civil liberties issues, and we have built that into the memorandum" laying out the arrangement, she said. The agreement allows Homeland Security to tap into NSA expertise on cybersecurity issues. Sec Napolitano said her department and the military are responsible for 95 to 99 percent of the federal jurisdiction for cybersecurity, so a partnership was logical and necessary to make the most of both departments' resources and expertise. "I think (the agreement) will be looked back on as really the foundational agreement for how the United States as a country deals with cybersecurity," she said.