Cyber Lawyers at the National Security Agency
On Tuesday, October 25, the Strauss Center hosted Benjamin Kastan, Associate General Counsel for Cybersecurity, and Charity King, Cybersecurity Attorney, at the National Security Agency, as they provided a lawyer’s perspective on the NSA’s role in securing America’s digital networks, infrastructure, and elections from 2016 to the present.
Kastan and King explained how lawyers contribute to NSA’s mission and can help improve America’s cybersecurity. Strauss Center Director Adam Klein moderated this discussion.
The discussion began with a brief overview of the NSA’s mission as it applies to cybersecurity. The NSA, as a part of the Department of Defense, is tasked with answering the intelligence needs from U.S. policy makers through the collection of intelligence and information from foreign networks. The current threats in cybersecurity were stated to be the governments of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, as well as cyber criminals around the world. Kastan and King discussed the philosophy behind election security, and highlighted the importance of understanding not just the influence of a foreign actor on the American people, but specifically actions that are taken covertly to influence public opinion.
King noted that the fact that election infrastructure is determined by state and local governments widens the scope and complexity of the issue. In addition, Kastan and King discussed the vulnerability equities process, legal issues that are popping up currently, and what it’s like being a lawyer at the NSA.
Biographies
Benjamin Kastan is the Associate General Counsel for Cybersecurity at the National Security Agency (NSA). As such, he is the senior legal adviser to NSA’s Cybersecurity Directorate (CSD) and leads the NSA Office of General Counsel (OGC) Cybersecurity Practice Group, a team of military and civilian attorneys who provide day-to-day operational legal advice and counsel to NSA personnel around the world on the full breadth of NSA’s cybersecurity mission, including on-net operations, cryptography, industry engagement, Defense Industrial Base cybersecurity, and information sharing with U.S. and foreign partners. The Cybersecurity Practice Group also advises CSD and other U.S. Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) System elements on the collection, analysis, and dissemination of SIGINT on foreign cyber threats, as well as NSA’s relationship with U.S. Cyber Command.
Kastan began his NSA career in NSA OGC’s Litigation Practice Group through the NSA Legal Honors Program. He has worked on a wide range of cyber operations issues since March 2016, including as the attorney embedded with NSA’s Computer Network Operations office and the NSA attorney assigned to support the NSA/U.S. Cyber Command Russia Small Group, charged with helping to protect the 2018 elections from foreign interference. He was elevated to the rank of Defense Intelligence Senior Level in May 2021.
Prior to joining NSA, he clerked for the Honorable Donna Stroud on the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Kastan received his J.D. and LL.M. in International and Comparative Law from Duke University School of Law.
Charity King is an attorney at the National Security Agency where she provides operational legal guidance to the Cybersecurity Directorate on cybersecurity activities, as well as the collection, analysis, and dissemination of signals intelligence (SIGINT) on foreign cyber threats. Charity also advises the Election Security Group on NSA activities supporting the defense of U.S. elections.
Charity began her career at NSA through the Legal Honors Program in 2018 in the Administrative Law and Ethics practice group. Prior to that, Charity clerked for U.S. Federal Magistrate Judge Andrew Austin in the Western District of Texas. She graduated with a J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law in 2016.
