Yahoo argues about crypto backdoors with the NSA

It’s been almost a year and a half since it was revealed that the NSA installed backdoors into several common cryptography technologies so that the government could decrypt communications but the NSA is still taking heat. Yahoo is the most recent company to make cleat its dislike of the NSA’s current and proposed backdoors in encryption technologies which it expressed at the Cybersecurity for a New America conference.

Echoing the concerns of many US-based technology companies have about US-led surveillance programs, Yahoo Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos asked the director of the National Security Agency some pointed questions concerning proposed or existing backdoors placed in encryption technologies. The responses from NSA director Adm. Mike Rogers only underscored the growing divide. The frank exchange occurred Monday at the Cybersecurity for a New America conference in Washington DC. It came 17 months after materials leaked by former NSA subcontractor Edward Snowden documented NSA-engineered backdoors were built into widely used cryptography technologies so that government agents could decrypt communications. Critics have since warned that the policy could backfire on US citizens, since backdoors can be exploited by governments of a variety of counties. Rogers clearly disagreed, but his denials were notable for a lack of technical detail.