Relations between tech companies and law enforcement have frayed after it was revealed this week that the NSA tapped into private networks at Google and Yahoo. But a new report from The New York Times reveals how seriously many companies have taken the revelations, and what they’re planning to do about it. Twitter has already moved to encrypt its direct messages, a measure that designers once thought unnecessary, and Google is already scrambling to secure their private network. As one security pro told the Times, “A lot of the things everybody knew they should do but just weren’t getting around to are now a much higher priority.”
After NSA leaks, Google and others scramble to lock down security
Beyond that, the piece details a growing sense of betrayal between company lawyers and lawmakers, as the government scrambles to protect secrecy, often leaving public services like Google and Facebook holding the bag. Google co-founder Larry Page has complained privately that the NSA betrayed his company by failing to explain his company’s role in PRISM more thoroughly, the piece reports, and Mark Zuckerberg has gone even further, calling out poor transparency measures in public. As the Facebook founder said at a recent conference, “The government blew it.”
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