PrivacyFacebook making snooping more difficult
Facebook has joined its Silicon Valley competitors to improve cybersecurity following a recent report suggesting that the NSA may have posed as Facebook to infect targeted computers. Joe Sullivan, Facebook’s chief security officer, said Facebook was working to “make sure the system is robust enough that everyone should be coming in the front door with legal process and not getting information any other way.” He added that no one could pose as Facebook servers any more since the company made “https,” a secure method of accessing Web pages, standard last year.
Last Thursday, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook account to readers, “when our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we’re protecting you against criminals, not our own government.” That day, Zuckerberg called President Barack Obama to express his frustration at recent allegations of NSA hacking.
Facebook has joined its Silicon Valley competitors to improve cybersecurity following a recent report suggesting that the NSA may have posed as Facebook to infect targeted computers.
The Financial Times reports that Facebook recently co-hosted a security engineer event on its campus with other major technology companies, including Google and Square. The days of comparing security practices between competing technology firms may be behind; instead many firms are working together to demand better transparency from the federal government.
According to Joe Sullivan, Facebook’s chief security officer, “it is fair to say that companies don’t compete on security in Silicon Valley but closely collaborate. Not co-opetition but straight up, 100 percent cooperation.”
The Edward Snowden leaks have not significantly changed the way Facebook secures its systems, but it has prompted Facebook to consider how much its users care about security. “We’re in a constant state of evaluation of all of the different vulnerable areas of the internet that affect the product directly and indirectly,” Sullivan said. “Every time a story comes out we look at what is this specific story, how would we be vulnerable, what have we already done.”
Sullivan said Facebook was working to “make sure the system is robust enough that everyone should be coming in the front door with legal process and not getting information any other way.” He added that no one could pose as Facebook servers any more since the company made “https,” a secure method of accessing Web pages, standard last year.
The NSA has issued a statement denying accusations that it may have impersonated American companies’ Web sites. “NSA does not use its technical capabilities to impersonate U.S. company Web sites,” the agency said. “Nor does NSA target any user of global Internet services without appropriate legal authority. Reports of indiscriminate computer exploitation operations are simply false.”
