Former NSA director: Fair to say US militarized the internet

“the tension between security and liberty” at a church in downtown Washington, Hayden defended the legal rationale -- Section 702 of the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act (FISA) -- for the PRISM program that allows the National Security Agency access into the servers of major tech companies like Google.

In defending mass surveillance programs exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Hayden said the US "could be fairly charged with the militarization of the World Wide Web."

Documents released by Snowden to The Washington Post showed the extent of the government's elite hacking unit, Tailored Access Operations (TAO), an aspect of the NSA that collects intelligence by hacking into foreign targets’ computers, confiscating data and monitoring communique. In addition, the documents proved the US government routinely hacks into foreign computers around the world, especially targets in China.

Hayden dismissed a question about whether the US is setting a damaging precedent with its aggressive spying operation by pointing to the internet’s US origins.