Yahoo Scandal Gets Congressional Attention
Posted by: Timothy Weaver on 10/17/2016 11:25 AM
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Various news organizations such as Reuters and the New York Times are reporting that the Justice Department obtained the go-ahead from the formerly secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to order Yahoo! to create a specialized program to scan email messages for certain trigger phrases.
The court order required the company to look for emails that contained a "signature" that was tied to the communications of a state-sponsored terrorist organization.
Members of Congress are asking questions. In a letter from Congressmen Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Justin Amash (R-Mich.) which reads: “There is significant confusion regarding the existence and nature of the program described by these reports and the legal questions implicated by the accuracy of specific details. As legislators, it is our responsibility to have accurate information about the intelligence activities conducted by the federal government.”
Yahoo has denied the allegations: “We narrowly interpret every government request for user data to minimize disclosure. The mail-scanning described in the article does not exist on our systems.”
The New York Times has reported that the software is no longer on the system.
Source: InfoSecurity
The court order required the company to look for emails that contained a "signature" that was tied to the communications of a state-sponsored terrorist organization. Members of Congress are asking questions. In a letter from Congressmen Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Justin Amash (R-Mich.) which reads: “There is significant confusion regarding the existence and nature of the program described by these reports and the legal questions implicated by the accuracy of specific details. As legislators, it is our responsibility to have accurate information about the intelligence activities conducted by the federal government.”
Yahoo has denied the allegations: “We narrowly interpret every government request for user data to minimize disclosure. The mail-scanning described in the article does not exist on our systems.”
The New York Times has reported that the software is no longer on the system.
Source: InfoSecurity
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