The Biden administration is not planning 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 Friday.
The official said the administration, mindful of the privacy and civil liberties implications that could arise, is not currently seeking additional authority to monitor U.S.-based networks.
AdForeign 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.
Criminal and state-backed hackers seeking to exploit the underlying flaw are apt to cause more havoc, the administration says.
When it comes to the pursuit of new surveillance or monitoring authorities, the official described the administration’s posture as “not yet, not now."