![\"yahoo-data-breach\"](\"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/identity-management\/files\/2016\/09\/yahoo-data-breach.jpg\")
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At the demand of the United States Government, Yahoo secretly built a custom software program designed to search all of its users\u2019 incoming emails for specific information provided by U.S. Intelligence officials. according to a report.<\/p>\n
Reuters first reported<\/a> the news last night, citing three former Yahoo employees and another person knowledgeable about the events as anonymous sources.<\/p>\n According to Reuters, Yahoo cooperated with a \u201cclassified edict\u201d sent to the company\u2019s legal team by scanning hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts for the NSA or FBI, according to Reuters\u2019 sources.<\/p>\n While Yahoo\u2019s alleged surveillance program is legal under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), this kind of spying would be the first of its kind\u2014or at least the first of its kind made public.<\/p>\n In the past, technology companies have handed over bulk customer data to intelligence agencies on a case-by-case basis. In this case, Yahoo went above and beyond that precedent with its real-time mass surveillance of users\u2019 email accounts.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t know what exactly U.S intelligence officials were looking for, only that asked Yahoo to search for a specific set of characters, which could mean they were looking for anything from a specific phrase to an email attachment.<\/p>\n We also don\u2019t know what information Yahoo may (or may not have) handed over, only that they performed the search as requested.<\/p>\n While Yahoo could have fought the government\u2019s request, as they\u2019ve done before<\/a>, Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer decided to comply with the directive last year, according to Reuters\u2019 anonymous sources. That decision may have lead to the departure of former Yahoo CISO Alex Stamos, who now works as CISO of Facebook.<\/p>\n In a brief initial response to Reuters\u2019 inquiries, Yahoo wrote that it is \u201ca law-abiding company, and complies with the laws of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n Yahoo has since issued a \u00a0longer, more carefully worded statement calling the article \u201cmisleading\u201d but stopping short of a flat out denial of the scanning program.<\/p>\n In statement, @Yahoo<\/a> avoids calling report is "false," preferring the meaningless "misleading." Compare Yahoo's wording (L) to Apple's (R). pic.twitter.com\/5pxNllUkoA<\/a><\/p>\n — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 5, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n