Twitter adds another layer of security to keep out the government snoops

sincity · November 23, 2013

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Twitter has joined the likes of Google and Facebook, by implementing "forward secrecy," a security tool that will aid the effort to keep out government agencies like the NSA and and GCHQ.

The social network says the added layer of security will prevent data intercepted by what it calls 'adversaries' (i.e. the governments) being decrypted.

Previously, unwanted parties who intercepted this user data could interpret it if they were also able to get hold of the master key a website uses to decrypt the data.

Forward Secrecy isn't a new tech, but has been rarely implemented until recently. It gives that master key a huge security boost by creating random session keys that don't travel across the network.

Protecting voices

Twitter's use of Forward Secrecy comes after Google's implementation in 2011 and Facebook's in June of this year, following the Edward Snowden revelations.

"Security is an ever-changing world. Our work on deploying forward secrecy is just the latest way in which Twitter is trying to defend and protect the user's voice in that world," the company wrote on its official blog.