Report: Microsoft moving toward tougher, anti-NSA security

Microsoft is considering increasing protection of users’ data after reports that the NSA was intercepting Google and Yahoo traffic, according to The Washington Post.

People close to the company’s plans told the Post that Microsoft is fearful that the NSA might have similarly intercepted its traffic.

{mosads}As a result, Microsoft is considering “a major new effort to encrypt its Internet traffic,” the Post reports.

According to the report, documents about the Google and Yahoo infiltrations provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden mention Microsoft products — including Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger — suggesting but not confirming that data associated with Microsoft’s products was vulnerable to NSA interception.

After last month’s reports that the NSA intercepted Google and Yahoo Internet, the companies pledged to toughen their encryption standards. 

According to the report, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith told shareholders last week that the company is “focused on engineering improvements that will further strengthen security, including strengthening security against snooping by governments.”

Smith told the Post that allegations of government interception of Microsoft’s traffic “are very disturbing.” 

If the allegations are true, “these actions amount to hacking and seizure of private data and in our view are a breach of the protection guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution,” he said.