WYDEN CALLS ON NSA TO UPDATE FEDERAL CYBERSECURITY GUIDANCE FOR VPNS

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 -- Sen. Ron Wyden issued the following press release:

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today urged General Joshua M. Rudd, the Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) to update federal cybersecurity guidance for Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to address surveillance threats posed by foreign intelligence agencies.

A Congressional Research Service (CRS) memo, requested by Senator Wyden and released along with the letter, highlights the vulnerability of consumer VPNs to surveillance by intelligence agencies capable of monitoring large swaths of the internet. The CRS memo cautions that "encryption strength alone does not protect users from an advanced, persistent threat conducting bulk data traffi...