NSA Scandal Could Cost Top American Tech Companies Billions of Dollars

Clients may take business somewhere else because of the revelations

The National Security Agency spying scandal could cost the top U.S. tech companies billions of dollars over the next several years, according to industry experts. In addition to consumer Internet companies, hardware and cloud-storage giants like IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Oracle could suffer billions of dollars in losses if international clients take their business elsewhere. Now, the nation's largest Internet companies are calling for Congress and President Obama to reform the U.S. government's secret surveillance programs.

Comments

[Agile Cyborg]

Federal government reform of surveillance at the behest of American crony capitalists literally fast tracks hiring the brightest to innovate secrecy so the status quo can continue full steam. Unless civil libertarians, specifically, are allowed through legislative activity to arm bar the miscreants running these organizations there is zero alternative left BUT an extremely clever p.r. strategy.

[Dave Krueger]

Now, the nation's largest Internet companies are calling for Congress and President Obama to reform the U.S. government's secret surveillance programs.

Too late. That train has already left the station. The key factor in all the recent revelations is the fact that the U.S. government can secretly coerce internet companies to share customer data even in clear violation of the law and the Constitution. Thinking that can be rectified with more legislation is idiotic beyond words.

And, no. It's not the revelations (or the messenger) that is to blame for this. It's the behavior that the revelations exposed that is to blame.

[briny]

There's some lag here around the effects that will be seen in the IT industry. No one is bothering to tally up the increased sales of equipment and services around trying to keep the buggers OUT of the networks. Zero Trust in the name of the game now. Even the EU has collectively shrugged and are going about their everyday business without dropping everything else to create a Super-Cloudy internal enterprise.

Turnabout is fair play, it seems. A year ago (last ten years here) everyone was worried about China and who dropped the Flame and Stuxnet cyber-weapons. Now they're all about US (pun intended). Who's left to buy from with China and the US out of the mix? Lovely question.