NSA spying challenges U.S. cloud providers, analyst says

November 17, 2013

Congressional lawmakers last week pondered what, if any, changes can be made to U.S. government surveillance programs, as fallout continues over whistleblowerEdward Snowden's disclosures about the National Security Agency's (NSA) collection of massive amounts of personal data. Alex Lakatos The agency's actions stand to harm U.S.-based cloud service providers and their customers around the globe. Revelations about the NSA's PRISM program could cost cloud computing companies $22 million to $35 million by 2016, according to an August estimate by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. Forrester predicted the losses could be much higher at $180 billion, or a 25 percent hit to overall revenues. CIO.com talked to Alex Lakatos, partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Mayer Brown's litigation and financial services regulatory and enforcement practice, about the reactions of European governments to NSA surveillance, the likely inaction of the U.S. government, and what is all means for cloud providers—stateside and abroad—and their clients around the world. What's been the reaction thus far to the NSA revelations in the global business community? To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2064265/nsa-spying-challenges-u-s-cloud-providers-analyst-says.html#tk.rss_all