National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander on Wednesday denied knowledge of an agency program that reportedly tapped Google and Yahoo data centers around the world without the companies’ knowledge.
“I don’t know what the report is,” Alexander said at a cybersecurity summit when asked about the Washington Post‘s latest report on NSA surveillance, as quoted by Politico.
Alexander added that the agency is “not authorized” to access the tech companies’ data centers without going through a “court process,” according to Politico. The Guardian reported earlier this year that the NSA’s PRISM program allows the agency direct access to the servers of certain tech companies, including Google and Yahoo, that were required under U.S. law to comply with requests for users’ communications.
When asked if the NSA infiltrated the data centers, Alexander responded “not to my knowledge,” as quoted by Politico.
