Despite hacks, U.S. not seeking widened domestic surveillance

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is not plan- ning to step up government surveillance of the U.S. internet even as state-backed foreign hackers and cybercriminals increasingly use it to evade detection, a senior administration official said.

The official said the admin- istration, mindful of the privacy and civil liberties impli- cations that could arise, is not currently seeking additional authority to moni- tor U.S.-based networks. Instead, the administration will focus on tighter partner- ships and improved infor- mation-sharing with the private-sector companies that already have broad visibility into the domestic internet, said the official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.

The comment was an acknowledgement of the fraught political debate surrounding d omestic government surveillance — nearly eight years after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden triggered a scan- dal with leaked agency docu- ments — and a recognition of the challenges in balancing the growing cyber defense imperative against privacy concerns that come with stepped-up monitoring.

Foreign state hackers are increasingly using U.S.-based virtual private networks, or VPNs, to evade detection by U.S. intelligence agencies, who are legally constrained from monitoring domestic infrastructure.

In the SolarWinds hacking campaign, for instance, the suspected Russian intelligence operatives used U.S.based VPNs to siphon off data through backdoors in victims’ networks, establishing an account that made it seem like they were in the U.S.