Wyden Urges Executive Branch to Shield Sensitive Federal Websites From Spying to Protect the Privacy of Whistleblowers and All Americans

Wyden Urges Executive Branch to Shield Sensitive Federal Websites From Spying to Protect the Privacy of Whistleblowers and All Americans

FBI, FTC Tiplines Among Sites Currently Vulnerable to Spying; Use of Encrypted Client Hello Would Shield Visitors

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today urged the executive branch to protect whistleblowers and Americans who visit federal websites by upgrading the security of hundreds of government websites that are currently vulnerable to surveillance.

Although the government protects the contents of nearly all website data, standard web encryption does not protect the names of websites that users visit, such as "reportfraud.ftc.gov." Wyden urged the government to adopt a security technology called Encrypted Client Hello (ECH), which would shield website names from spying, in a letter sent today to the acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the deputy federal chief information officer of the United States.

"As data travels across the internet, hackers and foreign actors monitoring network connections can easily see these exposed website names," Wyden wrote. "This visibility could lead to malicious eavesdroppers identifying whistleblowers, profiling cleared federal personnel, tracking Americans seeking crisis support, and mapping interactions between agencies."

Wyden's office identified numerous federal websites that could be protected by ECH against outside spying. Those websites include dozens of U.S. embassies, the FBI online tipline, the Department of Veterans Affairs online suicide prevention hotline and more. A non-exhaustive list of 350 vulnerable federal websites is attached to Wyden's letter.

Read the full letter here.

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