Microsoft is looking to revamp its internet traffic encryption system as it believes that its global communications system links have been breached by the National Security Agency, reported the Washington Post.
Per reports, the tech giant’s suspicions dates back to October when NSA was found secretly intercepting traffic inside Google and Yahoo’s private networks, the two leading industry rivals with similar global infrastructures through a program called MUSCULAR.
Documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden showed the NSA secretly accessed data from several tech giants by intercepting unencrypted Internet traffic and it could have spied on Microsoft’s Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, and Microsoft Passport.
Though Microsoft is not yet sure of NSA targeting the company, general counsel Brad Smith on Tuesday said that it would be ‘‘very disturbing’’ and a possible constitutional breach if true.
As an internet encryption boosting measure, Google already announced in May that by the end of 2013 it would be switching over to stronger 2,048-bit encryption keys. Yahoo and Facebook have also announced they are moving to 2,048-bit encryption keys in the near future. Yahoo will be extending encryption to all its products by 2014.
Microsoft announced last week that it is soon going to introduce message encryption for Office 365. This new service will automatically encrypt all users’ e-mail. However, the company has not yet outlined encryption levels for its other products.
In the wake of these revelations, top Microsoft executives are going to hold a meeting this week to decide what encryption initiatives should be deployed and the timeframe for its implementation, said people close to the matter.
Blackberry is NOT an American corporation and NEVER allowed the American government to spy on its customers. And Blackberry has bullet proof security.
This is bull crap. Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, ect. are all big enough to stand UP to the NSA. If they were in fact secretly hacked in and collecting data, that is illegal. I don’t care if your the government or not. They can not do that without a warrant. The NSA and Government have over stepped their boundaries and need to be held accountable. The only way a real law will get put into the books to PROTECT individuals and companies from this type of spying, is if one of the giants like Google or Microsoft fight back. More and more reasons why I want to move out of this stupid country. They think they own everything and can do whatever they want. Greedy America ran by corrupt and greedy old whitehead pricks who think they are above the law. Someone needs to put them in their place! Next they will have 100% logging of every American, and you won’t be able to type keystrokes offline in notepad without them knowing it!