President Barack Obama declared Friday that America is "going to have to make some choices" balancing privacy and security, launching a vigorous defense of formerly secret programs that sweep up an estimated 3 billion phone calls a day and amass Internet data from U.S. providers in an attempt to thwart terror attacks.
He warned that it will be harder to detect threats against the U.S. now that the two top-secret tools to target terrorists have been so thoroughly publicized.
At turns defensive and defiant, Obama stood by the spy programs revealed this week.
Obama's move to establish a cyber warfare doctrine will heighten fears over the increasing militarization of the internet. Photograph: Jim Young/Reuters
President Obama allegedly ordered security and intelligence officials to create a list of overseas targets for U.S. cyberattacks, according to The Guardian, which obtained a top-secret policy directive sent in 2012. Along with the selection of targets, the order further explains the effectiveness of such strategies, saying that they “can offer unique and unconventional capabilities to advance U.S. national objectives around the world with little or no warning to the adversary or target and with potential effects ranging from subtle to severely damaging.” The order does, however, include an instruction that any attack must comply with the law.