Yahoo is moving ahead with plans to beef up security across its services, rolling out full data center encryption on March 31, and eyeing Yahoo Messenger as the next major product to get a secure update.
Yahoo's new Chief Information Security Officer, Alex Stamos, outlined Yahoo's encryption plans in a Wednesday blog post, and promised that "hundreds of Yahoos have been working around the clock over the last several months to provide a more secure experience for our users."
One of their projects is Yahoo Messenger. Stamos promised that "a new, encrypted version of Yahoo Messenger will be deployed in coming months."
Meanwhile, "traffic moving between Yahoo data centers is fully encrypted as of March 31," he wrote.
The announcement comes several months after CEO Marissa Mayer announced an extended effort to encrypt all Yahoo products. The move was prompted by continuing reports of NSA spying, particularly on Yahoo since many of its services remained unencrypted and, therefore, easier to access.
In the last few months, Yahoo has made browsing over HTTPS the default, and encrypted the Yahoo Homepage and all search queries that run on it and most Yahoo properties.
"One of our biggest areas of focus in the coming months is to work with and encourage thousands of our partners across all of Yahoo's hundreds of global properties to make sure that any data that is running on our network is secure," Stamos said. "Our broader mission is to not only make Yahoo secure, but improve the security of the overall Web ecosystem."
The Web giant also implemented the latest in security best practices, Stamos said, detailing support for TLS 1.2, Perfect Forward Secrecy, and a 2048-bit RSA key. "We are currently working to bring all Yahoo sites up to this standard," he added.
For now, users can encrypt News, Sports, Finance, and Good Morning America on Yahoo by typing "https" before the site URL.
"Our goal is to encrypt our entire platform for all users at all times, by default," Stamos said.
Another big project Yahoo reportedly has in the works is its own Web-based video platform, a la YouTube. Reports suggest the site won't be a free, open platform for cat videos and twerking fails, though. Instead, the company is looking for eye-opening content from serious video publishers.