Among the seven major tech companies initially implicated in the Edward Snowden documents, Microsoft stood out as the one cooperating most with the National Security Agency. Now, the software giant seems to be both publicly and privately making a point of stopping the spying agency's efforts.
According to a report on Wednesday from the Washington Post, Microsoft executives are huddling this week despite the Thanksgiving holiday to discuss ramping up efforts to encrypt user data that is sent between its servers. The meeting comes off the heels of a bombshell report in October that the NSA has tapped into the lines of communication between the supercomputers that power Google and Yahoo across the world, essentially giving U.S. spies access to information on their customers without the companies' knowledge.
And it seems Microsoft should perhaps be worried, too. Though initial not named in the Google and Yahoo report as having its servers compromised, the Washington Post offers new slides on Wednesday that imply (but don't prove) personal data from Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger was intercepted.
Following the first leaks in June, Microsoft's top lawyer vocally denounced the NSA, writing that the "Constitution itself is suffering," despite reporting from The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald that Microsoft actively helped the agency circumvent its encryption.
Unfortunately for companies like Microsoft and their customers, encryption is no match for the NSA, which can crack through encryption and into data. Better to try and fail than to not try at all.
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