National Security and Foreign Affairs

Demonstrating that allegedly allowing the US government to scan hundreds of millions of your users' emails may not just be abetting a violation of the 4th Amendment but also a huge financial liability, we learn via the New York Post that Verizon is seeking a $1-billion discount on the purchase price of Yahoo following

Five things to know about the digital threats facing America’s Election Day.

Election Day is still four weeks away but the integrity of the final outcome is under attack now by a pernicious combination of real weaknesses in U.S. cybersecurity and candidate-fueled conspiracy about ballot tampering.

On the Yahoo hack, this much we do know: On September 22, Yahoo admitted that some 500 million accounts had been stolen by hackers, including encrypted passwords, names, phone numbers, e-mails, but not banking information. The breach actually occurred two years ago, but apparently Yahoo only discovered the theft some weeks before the public announcement.

Yahoo’s reported use of custom-built software to scan its users’ emails on behalf of federal investigators rekindled concerns this week over how the government goes about secretly using its surveillance authority.

Not long after Edward Snowden’s revelations of massive government surveillance of the American public, Yahoo was one of the eight tech giants that called for strong reforms that would protect their customers.

And back in 2007, Yahoo went to court to challenge a government surveillance program in order to protect its users’ privacy.

Well, that was then.

The head of the National Security Agency (NSA) on Wednesday appeared to downplay allegations in a recent report that claimed Yahoo developed a scanning software to help U.S. intelligence search its customers' incoming emails.

“I would only comment, I’ve read this real quickly and thought, well this is a little speculative,” Adm. Michael Rogers said at a cybersecurity summit in Cambridge, Mass., in apparent reference to the Yahoo report.

GETTY ENLISTS PHOTOGS AGAINST GOOGLE — Getty Images, the stock photography giant, is trying a new tactic as it ramps up its effort to get antitrust officials to crack down on Google: rallying the sort of photographers and small photo agencies whose images they license to complain that they feel the pain of Google’s design choices.