Seeing Through PRISM

Whatever the case may be, the NSA story will certainly impact the Big Data, cloud and network-security markets as well as IT in general, as companies might be less inclined to move sensitive data over external networks and instead opt for more traditional, on-premises solutions. According to Bloomberg, Cisco may experience a backlash in China, where it sells more than $2 billion in network gear each year, because of the fallout over Snowden’s accusations; and Huawei and ZTE are all but sure to jump on the news as well.

These developments may also drive an increase in business for companies who sell advanced encryption solutions and privacy protection services. DuckDuckGo, a search engine that doesn’t record users’ search histories, reported that its traffic surged 75 percent in the two weeks following the first reports of PRISM. Likewise, Cryptocat, a service that encrypts chat messages, told Time magazine that downloads of its platform doubled in the wake of the US government’s acknowledgment of PRISM’s existence. Perhaps similar services will soon be offered as part of a premium privacy package from major CSPs (if they’re legally allowed to do so, that is), but at the very least, IT departments around the world are likely to tighten their data-security policies before the end of the year.

Is the Obama administration carrying out warrantless domestic surveillance, or is the NSA story overblown? Does the US government have a back door into global telecommunications networks—the very same back door it’s accused China of installing in its network gear? Pipeline will provide in-depth coverage of this story and its impact on service providers, vendors and the markets in which they operate in the coming months, so stay tuned.