Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google expressed unease Friday about the National Security Agency’s ability to bypass online security systems that protect the privacy of internet users.
Yahoo said in a statement that if such an effort by the NSA and
its British counterpart GCHQ to compromise encryption privacy
protections used online exists, “it offers substantial
potential for abuse.” Microsoft and Google also both signaled
concern and an unawareness of the intelligence agencies’
encryption-thwarting methods.
The New York Times, the Guardian, and ProPublica published
Thursday information obtained from Edward Snowden outlining how
the agencies have circumvented the encryption methods used to secure
emails, chats, and essentially most internet traffic that was
previously thought to be protected. In addition, a GCHQ team has
worked to infiltrate encrypted traffic on the “big four”
service providers: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft’s Hotmail (now known
as Outlook), and Facebook.
"We are unaware of and do not participate in such an
effort,” a Yahoo spokesman said Friday. “Yahoo zealously
defends our users' privacy and responds to government requests
for data only after considering every applicable objection and in
accordance with the law.”
A Microsoft spokesperson said, "We have significant concerns
about the allegations of government activity reported yesterday
and will be pressing the government for an explanation."
Microsoft and Google are currently teaming up on a lawsuit against the US government for the
right to reveal more information about official requests for
customer data by American intelligence. The companies are set to
file legal briefs in the case on Monday.
As for the encryption revelations, a spokesman for Google said,
"The security of our users' data is a top priority. We do not
provide any government, including the US government, with access
to our systems. As for recent reports that the US government has
found ways to circumvent our security systems, we have no
evidence of any such thing ever occurring. We provide user data
to governments only in accordance with the law."
Google is ramping up its efforts to encrypt all information
passing through its system, The Washington Post reported late
Friday. The effort was started last year but was accelerated in
June when it was revealed via Snowden’s leaks that Google and
other companies are legally compelled to share data with the NSA
through its PRISM program.
Google did not comment on how much the initiative will cost, nor
did they offer clues as to the scope of the project or what exact
technology will be used. The effort is expected to be completed
soon, months ahead of schedule.
The Post said that other companies - including Microsoft, Apple,
and Facebook - are now using more encryption for some of their
services, at varying levels of sophistication.
On Friday, Yahoo shared its first transparency report with the
public, citing what it could about government requests made to
the company.
"Our legal department demands that government data requests be
made through lawful means and for lawful purposes,” Ron Bell,
Yahoo's general counsel, wrote Friday. “We regularly push back
against improper requests for user data, including fighting
requests that are unclear, improper, overbroad or unlawful. In
addition, we mounted a two-year legal challenge to the 2008
amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and
recently won a motion requiring the US government to consider
further declassifying court documents from that case."
Reacting to the encryption stories, the office of the director of
national intelligence (ODNI) said Friday that it should
"hardly be surprising that our intelligence agencies seek ways
to counteract our adversaries' use of encryption.”
The ODNI, which heads US intelligence-gathering efforts, said in
a statement “the fact that NSA’s mission includes deciphering
enciphered communications is not a secret, and is not news,”
but went on to warn that the revelations may cause harm to
national security.
"The stories published yesterday, however, reveal specific and
classified details about how we conduct this critical
intelligence activity,” ODNI said. “Anything that
yesterday's disclosures add to the ongoing public debate is
outweighed by the road map they give to our adversaries about the
specific techniques we are using to try to intercept their
communications in our attempts to keep America and our allies
safe and to provide our leaders with the information they need to
make difficult and critical national security decisions.”