President Obama meets with tech CEOs over NSA spying

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, right, arrives at the White House for a meeting with President Obama over NSA spying. (Alex Wong / Getty Images / March 21, 2014)

March 21, 2014, 3:03 p.m.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Six technology executives including Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt met with President Obama on Friday to discuss National Security Agency spying in the wake of revelations that the agency may have infected millions of computers around the world with malware.

Also at the meeting were CEOs Reed Hastings of Netflix, Drew Houston of Dropbox, Alex Karap of Palantir Technologies and Aaron Levie of Box.

The CEOs of Yahoo, Microsoft, LinkedIn and Twitter could not make the meeting.

The meeting comes ahead of a March 28 deadline for recommendations on how to end the NSAs collection of bulk phone records.

Internet companies are closely following the issue because it could affect how the government intercepts Internet data as well.

Zuckerberg recently voiced the jointly held frustration of the tech CEOs that government spying is hurting their businesses around the world.

His comments came after reports surfaced that the NSA may have infected computers with malware by posing as a Facebook server to gain access to users data. The allegations were in documents leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden to the online news site the Intercept.

The U.S. government should be the champion for the Internet, not a threat, Zuckerberg wrote in a recent post on his Facebook page. They need to be much more transparent about what theyre doing, or otherwise people will believe the worst.

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President Obama meets with tech CEOs over NSA spying

Revelations of NSA spying hurt tech firms

SAN FRANCISCO -- Microsoft has lost customers, including the government of Brazil.

IBM is spending more than a billion dollars to build data centers overseas to reassure foreign customers that their information is safe from prying eyes in the U.S. government.

And tech firms abroad, from Europe to South America, say they are gaining customers who are shunning U.S. providers, suspicious because of revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden that tied these providers to the vast NSA surveillance program.

Even as Washington grapples with the diplomatic and political fallout of Mr. Snowden's leaks, the more urgent issue, companies and analysts say, is economic. Tech executives, including Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, raised the issue Friday when they went to a White House meeting with President Barack Obama.

It is impossible to see now the full economic ramifications of the spying revelations -- in part because most companies are locked in multiyear contracts -- but the pieces are beginning to add up as businesses question the trustworthiness of U.S. technology products.

Meanwhile, the confirmation hearing last week for the new NSA chief, the video appearance of Mr. Snowden at a technology conference in Texas and the drip of new details about government spying have kept attention focused on an issue that many tech executives have hoped would go away. Despite the tech firms' assertions that they provide information on their customers only when required under law the perception that they enabled the spying program has lingered.

"It's clear to every single tech company that this is affecting their bottom line," said Daniel Castro, a senior analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, who predicted that the U.S. cloud computing industry could lose $35 billion by 2016.

Forrester Research, a technology research firm, said the losses could be as high as $180 billion, or 25 percent of industry revenue, based on the size of the cloud computing, Web hosting and outsourcing markets and the worst-case scenario for damages.

The business effect of the Snowden revelations is felt most in the daily conversations between tech companies with products to pitch and their wary customers. The topic of surveillance, which rarely came up before, is now "the new normal" in these conversations, as one tech company executive described it.

"We're hearing from customers, especially global enterprise customers, that they care more than ever about where their content is stored and how it is used and secured," said John E. Frank, deputy general counsel at Microsoft, which has been publicizing that it allows customers to store data in Microsoft data centers in certain countries.

Originally posted here:
Revelations of NSA spying hurt tech firms

NSA spying starts costing US tech companies as some foreign customers leave

SAN FRANCISCO Microsoft has lost customers, including the government of Brazil.

IBM is spending more than a billion dollars to build data centers overseas to reassure foreign customers that their information is safe from prying eyes in the United States government.

And tech companies abroad, from Europe to South America, say they are gaining customers that are shunning United States providers, suspicious because of the revelations by Edward J. Snowden that tied these providers to the National Security Agency's vast surveillance program.

Even as Washington grapples with the diplomatic and political fallout of Mr. Snowden's leaks, the more urgent issue, companies and analysts say, is economic. Tech executives, including Eric E. Schmidt of Google and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, are expected to raise the issue when they return to the White House today for a meeting with President Obama.

It is impossible to see now the full economic ramifications of the spying disclosures in part because most companies are locked in multiyear contracts but the pieces are beginning to add up as businesses question the trustworthiness of American technology products.

The confirmation hearing last week for the new N.S.A. chief, the video appearance of Mr. Snowden at a technology conference in Texas and the drip of new details about government spying have kept attention focused on an issue that many tech executives hoped would go away.

Despite the tech companies' assertions that they provide information on their customers only when required under law and not knowingly through a back door the perception that they enabled the spying program has lingered.

"It's clear to every single tech company that this is affecting their bottom line," said Daniel Castro, a senior analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, who predicted that the United States cloud computing industry could lose $35 billion by 2016.

Forrester Research, a technology research firm, said the losses could be as high as $180 billion, or 25 percent of industry revenue, based on the size of the cloud computing, web hosting and outsourcing markets and the worst case for damages.

The business effect of the disclosures about the N.S.A. is felt most in the daily conversations between tech companies with products to pitch and their wary customers. The topic of surveillance, which rarely came up before, is now "the new normal" in these conversations, as one tech company executive described it.

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NSA spying starts costing US tech companies as some foreign customers leave

Revelations of NSA spying hurt US tech companies

San Francisco: Microsoft has lost customers, including the government of Brazil.

IBM is spending more than a billion dollars to build data centres overseas to reassure foreign customers that their information is safe from prying eyes in the U.S. government.

And tech companies abroad, from Europe to South America, say they are gaining customers that are shunning U.S. providers, suspicious because of the revelations by Edward J. Snowden that tied these providers to the National Security Agency's vast surveillance program.

Even as Washington grapples with the diplomatic and political fallout of Snowden's leaks, the more urgent issue, companies and analysts say, is economic. Tech executives, including Eric E. Schmidt of Google and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, are expected to raise the issue when they return to the White House on Friday for a meeting with President Barack Obama.

It is impossible to see now the full economic ramifications of the spying revelations - in part because most companies are locked in multiyear contracts - but the pieces are beginning to add up as businesses question the trustworthiness of U.S. technology products.

Meanwhile, the confirmation hearing last week for the new NSA chief, the video appearance of Snowden at a technology conference in Texas and the drip of new details about government spying have kept attention focused on an issue that many tech executives have hoped would go away.

Despite the tech companies' assertions that they provide information on their customers only when required under law - and not knowingly through a back door - the perception that they enabled the spying program has lingered.

"It's clear to every single tech company that this is affecting their bottom line," said Daniel Castro, a senior analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, who predicted that the U.S. cloud computing industry could lose $35 billion by 2016.

Forrester Research, a technology research firm, said the losses could be as high as $180 billion, or 25 percent of industry revenue, based on the size of the cloud computing, web hosting and outsourcing markets and the worst-case scenario for damages.

The business effect of the Snowden revelations is felt most in the daily conversations between tech companies with products to pitch and their wary customers. The topic of surveillance, which rarely came up before, is now "the new normal" in these conversations, as one tech company executive described it.

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Revelations of NSA spying hurt US tech companies

Google makes HTTPS encryption mandatory for Gmail

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 21 (UPI) -- Google has said that all Gmail users will have HTTPS encryption, regardless of the security of their Internet connection, as emails move around Google servers.

The search giant has been attempting to strengthen security and data encryption standards after revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency was snooping the Internet, and possibly accessing Google's data centers. The move is important for the company as it relies heavily on user data to drive its services.

Google's security measure will secure communications of users emailing other Gmail users, as Google servers are involved at both ends, but may not extend to users with different email services. In those cases security not only depends on Google's encryption but on recipients' email service providers.

While Google's security measure will help prevent bulk email grabs, by individuals or institutions such as the NSA, targeted email interventions will still be possible.

Making an appearance at TED in Vancouver, Google CEO Larry Page was critical of the government's snooping program.

For me, its tremendously disappointing that the government sort of secretly did all these things and didnt tell us. I dont think we can have a democracy if were having to protect you and our users from the government for stuff that we never had a conversation about, he said.

Google has had HTTPS encryption since it started and has been a default feature since 2010, but the encryption wasn't applied to emails flowing through Google's servers.

[Slate] [PCMag]

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Google makes HTTPS encryption mandatory for Gmail

Back off, NSA: Google beefs up Gmail encryption against NSA prying

Google announced Thursday it has enhanced Gmail's encryption technology, to make it harder for the NSA to intercept messages.

Google has enhanced the encryption technology for its flagship email service in ways that will make it harder for the National Security Agency to intercept messages moving among the company's worldwide data centers.

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Among the most extraordinary disclosures in documents leaked by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden were reports that the NSA had secretly tapped into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world.

Google, whose executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, said in November that he was outraged over the practice, didn't mention the NSA in Thursday's announcement, except in a veiled reference to "last summer's revelations." The change affects more than 425 million users of Google's Gmail service.

Yahoo has promised similar steps for its email service by this spring.

Google and other technology companies have been outspoken about the US government's spy programs. The companies are worried more people will reduce their online activities if they believe almost everything they do is being monitored by the government. A decline in Internet use could hurt the companies financially by giving them fewer opportunities to show online ads and sell other services.

"Your email is important to you, and making sure it stays safe and always available is important to us," Nicolas Lidzborski, Gmail's security engineering lead, wrote in a blog post.

Lidzborski said that all Gmail messages a consumer sends or receives are now encrypted.

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Back off, NSA: Google beefs up Gmail encryption against NSA prying

Linux Goes to the Head of the Class

By Jack M. Germain LinuxInsider 03/21/14 2:03 PM PT

One of the most useful parts of Whittum's focus on open source software in schools appears in his second major book division. This is where he discusses the vast curriculum strengths of open source software. Whittum lays out the available software that awaits use in six parts. He covers Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, the Arts and Bible Studies.

Energizing Education through Open Source: Using Open Source Software to Enhance Learning By Christopher Whittum ISBN: 978-1-4834-0444-8 Pages: 144 Price: US$21.95 Available at Lulu.com, Amazon and Barnes & Noble] .

A new book on open source education teaches school leaders and parents why kids need to see coding as more than cool. Energizing Education through Open Source: Using Open Source Software to Enhance Learning by Christopher Whittum makes a strong case for deploying the Linux OS and its academic software in schools.

The step-by-step lessons and free online resources Whittum provides make this book required reading for developing computer-driven curricula and at-home studies. It is part of the STEM Education Coalition's mission to inform federal and state policymakers about the critical role that science, technology and engineering play and the benefits available to schools from open source technology.

Computer systems analyst jobs are projected to grow 22 percent between 2010-2020, according to the United States Department of Education, but only 16 percent of high school seniors are interested in a STEM career. To improve those statistics, computer technology teacher Christopher Whittum asserts that U.S. schools can implement more STEM classes at a lower cost.

Whittum pushes the idea that school districts easily can deploy open source software and the free Linux operating system to provide more affordable options to incorporating technology across the curriculum. His book is a how-to guide on learning open source computer systems through use of Edubuntu Linux and UberStudent Linux.

The challenge to giving schools access to more affordable technology starts with an awareness of open source software. Whittum focuses on using viable alternatives to proprietary software and technologies that dominate school buying decisions.

Whittum presents his rationale for using open source in a building-block fashion in five main sections. Each section is divided into a series of parts. This makes it very easy to see the significant aspects to each step of the open source discovery and selection process.

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Linux Goes to the Head of the Class