Yahoo Vs. NSA: All Data Center Traffic Will Get SSL Encryption By Q1 2014

After leaks by Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency’s ability to monitor the private fiber links that connect data centers, tech companies are stepping up their encryption efforts on internal traffic.

Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer announced on the official Yahoo blog on Monday that the company will use Secure Sockets Layer encryption with a 2048-bit key to encrypt all of its products, services and data.

Yahoo previously announced that Yahoo Mail would get SSL encryption by Jan. 8, 2014. In the latest announcement, Mayer said that “all information that moves between our data centers” will be encrypted with SSL by the end of Q1 2014. Yahoo will give users an option to encrypt all data flow to and from Yahoo and work with co-branded Mail accounts to ensure that international Yahoo Mail accounts are enabled with https.

Mayer emphasized that Yahoo wants users to trust Yahoo and that the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company never willingly gave the NSA access to its data centers.

While the encryption will give users more privacy, Snowden recently revealed that Yahoo’s Web sessions and data center were the largest sources of data collected by the NSA.

Will SSL encryption across all of Yahoo’s services improve users’ trust in Yahoo? Let us know in the comments.