In the wake of revelations concerning the NSA's spying on U.S. tech companies, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Yahoo and others have announced plans to increase their encryption. When the Washington Post broke the story a month ago about the NSA hacking traffic between data centers, it left tech giants scrambling to protect their users' data, as well as their own reputations.

For companies like Google, Yahoo and Facebook, whose business revolves around user data, protecting that data and maintaining the trust of their users is vital to continued success. Since the Snowden leaks first began, companies have been trying to reassure their customers that their data is safe and not being given en masse to the NSA. These recent allegations dispute those claims, as it paints a picture of the NSA bypassing official channels altogether by intercepting communication between data centers. The revelations have drawn swift condemnation from the tech giants, with Google being especially vocal in their criticism.

On a more practical note, Google, Facebook and Yahoo have begun switching to stronger 2048-bit encryption, over the older, less secure 1024-bit variety. According to the U.S. government, 2048-bit encryption won't easily be broken until at least 2030. At the time of publication, Google has already finished upgrading their SSL certificates to 2048-bit, beating their internal end-of-year goal for the transition. Google has also moved to encrypt all data to and from their data centers. Yahoo and Facebook are close behind, with Yahoo promising that all user data will be encrypted in the first quarter of 2014.

In addition to stronger and more widespread encryption, companies are also implementing policies and technologies to detect fraudulent encryption certificates, as well as implementing "perfect forward secrecy" to protect user data even if the NSA acquires one of the related encryption keys.

With these revelations, one thing is clear: tech companies are using all of their considerable technical experience and knowledge to foil the NSA's surveillance.

Sources:
https://www.concordmonitor.com/news/nation/world/9368701-95/tech-giants-turn-to-encryption-to-deter-nsa-spying
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/technology/angry-over-us-surveillance-tech-giants-bolster-defenses.html?_r=0
https://news.yahoo.com/yahoo-vows-encrypt-users-personal-data-193109865.html