NSA and Google email chats reveal close work on security

Key leaders at Google and the National Security Agency (NSA) have been emailing one another directly regarding work on key security issues, it has been revealed.
Emails between Google and the NSA were revealed by Al Jazeera, which showed conversations between NSA director general Keith Alexander and Google chiefs Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt.
The paper reports that while Google claims only to have dealt with the NSA in official ways, emails suggest otherwise and show the web firm being invited to sessions hosted by the security agency in very informal tones.
"The meeting discussion will be topic-specific, and decision-oriented, with a focus on Mobility Threats and Security," wrote Alexander in an email to Schmidt. The email adds that the meeting was to be a follow-up that would allow the two parties to talk more.
"About six months ago, we began focusing on the security of mobility devices," added the agency director.
"A group (primarily Google, Apple and Microsoft) recently came to agreement on a set of core security principles. When we reach this point in our projects we schedule a classified briefing for the CEOs of key companies to provide them a brief on the specific threats we believe can be mitigated and to seek their commitment for their organisation to move ahead ... Google's participation in refinement, engineering and deployment of the solutions will be essential."
Schmidt responded positively, despite not being able to attend.
"General Keith.. so great to see you.. !" he wrote. "I'm unlikely to be in California that week so I'm sorry I can't attend (will be on the east coast). Would love to see you another time. Thank you!"
Brin was also asked to attend, but also could not. Al Jazeera suggested that he has an equally good relationship with Alexander, and again it produced email content as evidence. Also in that email is evidence that other Google staffers, including Android security professionals, are involved.
"I ... really appreciate Vint Cerf [Google's vice president and chief internet evangelist], Eric Grosse [vice president of security engineering] and Adrian Ludwig's [lead engineer for Android security] contributions to these efforts during the past year," wrote the director in a mail to Brin.
"You recently received an invitation to the ESF Executive Steering Group meeting, which will be held on January 19, 2012. We will also discuss some of the threats we see and what we are doing to mitigate those threats ... Your insights, as a key member of the Defense Industrial Base, are valuable to ensure ESF's efforts have measurable impact."
When asked for comment on this, Google pointed V3 towards the statement it gave Al Jazeera, explaining that yes, its high-ups have attended NSA sessions.
It said: "We work really hard to protect our users from cyber attacks, and we always talk to experts - including in the US government - so we stay ahead of the game... It's why Sergey attended this NSA conference."
Google has regularly tried to distance itself from the NSA and PRISM stories, and last year in a legal filing it complained about media reports that link the two parties and bemoaned its lack of power to respond to allegations.
"Google's reputation and business has been harmed by the false or misleading reports in the media, and Google's users are concerned by the allegations," the web giant said in the filing.
"Google must respond to such claims with more than generalities. Moreover, these are matters of significant weight and importance, and transparency is critical to advancing public debate in a thoughtful and democratic manner."