Ride the Lightning

Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Microsoft Helps NSA View Encrypted Data on SkyDrive, Skype, etc.

July 16, 2013

You could probably count on one hand the number of people who are shocked to learn that Microsoft helped the NASA to circumvent its encryption.

According to top-secret documents obtained by The Guardian and reported in a story last Friday, Microsoft has:

  • Helped the NSA circumvent its encryption so that the agency can intercept web chats on the Outlook.com portal
  • Given pre-encryption stage access to e-mail on Outlook.com, including Hotmail
  • Allowed the NSA easier access to SkyDrive
  • Helped to triple the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism

Microsoft released a statement Friday saying, "To be clear, Microsoft does not provide any government with blanket or direct access to SkyDrive, Outlook.com, Skype or any Microsoft product." It would be hard to find words more squirrelly than those. The degree of access and the methodology are not specified so no one can make heads or tails of what is really being afforded to the government.

There are a lot of lawyers using Skype and SkyDrive – but I won't be recommending that they continue. It sure would be nice to hear of a company that isn't helping the NSA to gain access to the proverbial cookie jar.