The Fallout From the NSA's Backdoors Mandate

The United States National Security Agency (NSA) is widely believed to have mandated high-tech vendors build backdoors into their hardware and software. Reactions from foreign governments to the news are harming American businesses and, some contend, may result in the breakup of the Internet.

For example, Russia is moving to paper and typewriters in some cases to move certain types of information, Private.me COO Robert Neivert told the E-Commerce Times.

Governments are pushing to enact laws to force the localization of data -- generally meaning they won't allow data to be stored outside their borders to protect citizens against NSA-type surveillance -- a move that's of particular concern to American businesses, according to a Lawfare Research paper.

That's because they deem U.S. firms untrustworthy for having provided the NSA with access to the data of their users.

"There's an increased use of networks on behalf of Europe and other allies that do not pass through U.S. companies or U.S.-controlled networks," Neivert said. Some countries are even proposing to break up the Internet.

However, "people who say these things threaten the Internet itself are misunderstanding things," Jonathan Sander, strategy & research officer of Stealthbits Technologies, told the E-Commerce Times. "The Internet produces too much wealth for too many people and organizations for anyone, including the U.S., to threaten it."

The U.S. economy "is one of the best weapons we have in the technology war," Sander continued. The U.S. market "is too big for foreign governments to ignore," which is why foreign companies continue doing business with the U.S.

Concern has been expressed about invasions of privacy through surveillance, but this issue is "a matter of policy" and there are differences in how citizens of different countries approach it, Sander pointed out. "In the EU and, to a lesser extent [Australia and New Zealand], privacy is an issue at the ballot box so there are laws reflecting that."

In the U.S., however, privacy "has yet to seriously break through as an issue, so there has been less motion," Sander remarked.

In August of last year, the German government reportedly warned that Windows 8 could act as a Trojan when combined with version 2.0 of the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), a specification for a secure cryptoprocessor.

Excerpt from:
The Fallout From the NSA's Backdoors Mandate