White House cyber security chief has reportedly said that the damage done to the US national security due to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden would take decades to repair.
Special assistant to the president for cyber security, Michael Daniel, said that they are going to deal with the fallout from the leaks and the impact on national security would reverberate for years to come.
Daniel further said that the Obama administration has adopted a passive approach to offensive and retaliatory cyber attacks against nation states and criminal hackers caught attacking US networks, Washington Times reports.
He said that they were going to prioritize network defense and law enforcement before conducting offensive cyber attacks.
Accusing Snowden of compromising sensitive 'accesses' used by the NSA to conduct electronic spying, Daniel said that the techniques and tools were no longer available to them.
He further said that other classified NSA systems were being rebuilt and the Snowden affair had undermined focus on other pressing cyber security and national security issues.
Snowden has been charged with espionage for leaking classified data related to the US surveillance activities and is currently under temporary asylum in the Russia.