It's official: NSA spying is hurting the US tech economy

zdnet.com

China is no longer using high-profile US technology brands for state purchases, amid ongoing revelations about mass surveillance and hacking by the US government.

A new report confirmed key brands, including Cisco, Apple, Intel, and McAfee -- among others -- have been dropped from the Chinese government's list of authorized brands, a Reuters report said Wednesday.

The number of approved foreign technology brands fell by a third, based on an analysis of the procurement list. Less than half of those companies with security products remain on the list.

Although China is featured in the story, I would have to imagine that it is not limited to China.

The report confirms what many US technology companies have been saying for the past year: the activities by the NSA are harming their businesses in crucial growth markets, including China.

The Chinese government's procurement list changes coincided with a series of high profile leaks that showed the US government have been on an international mass surveillance spree, as well as hacking expeditions into technology companies, governments, and the personal cellphones of world leaders.

Microsoft and HP have both reported their China earnings were below expectations, Cisco seems to be taking the biggest hit!

No surprise really...
Photos of an NSA “upgrade” factory show Cisco router getting implant (arstechnica.com)

Catalog Advertises NSA Toolbox (spiegel.de)

How the NSA tampers with US-made internet routers (theguardian.com)

And Cis co Goes Straight To The President To Complain About The NSA Intercepting Its Hardware (techdirt.com)

“We simply cannot operate this way; our customers trust us to be able to deliver to their doorsteps products that meet the highest standards of integrity and security,” John Chambers (Cisco CEO) wrote. “We understand the real and significant threats that exist in this world, but we must also respect the industry’s relationship of trust with our customers.”

Earlier this month at its fiscal second-quarter earnings, the networking giant said it took a 19 percent revenue ding in China, amid claims the NSA was installing backdoors and implants on its routers in transit.

It seems quite obvious that NSA tampering and agressive SIGINT operations would damage the US tech industry, I would imagine now that the damage is done it makes international buyers more hesitant to buy USA.

That said, I suppose it's sadly become who you would rather have spy on you?

oh isht they gittin' in the way of some REAL rich folks gittin' even richer... they 'bess cut that out... Thays gonna git in trouble

a reply to: Elton

It's not only going to be international sales that will be impacted either, I fully expect to see evidence emerge of these tools being used not for security but for corporation espionage and sabotage.

Lets not forget, one person having access to the core systems of a company could then make a hell of a lot of money selling that gathered information to one of those "special partners".

Ever wonder just how Google became so powerful and Yahoo! almost insignificant in the search business? It might be time to start asking whether one "partner" of the NSA was getting some juicy intel about their competition.

a reply to: Rocker2013

Yeah, I should think a backdoored system is open to anyone who knows the backdoor password (or unreported unpatched exploit the NSA is using for access).

originally posted by: Elton
a reply to: Rocker2013

Yeah, I should think a backdoored system is open to anyone who knows the backdoor password (or unreported unpatched exploit the NSA is using for access).

I think there are already the backdoors in systems analysis programmes. The question should be how essential are these analysis programmes, or can they be isolated to only run when an owner wants them to?
As for the NSA, they have all the tools they want, and they also already have had their employees misusing same for their own use.

NSA’s ANT Division Catalog of Exploits for Nearly Every Major Software/Hardware/Firmware

leaksource.info...

Here is the catalog referred to in the OP.
It is very interesting to grasp the enormous breadth of the NSA's surveillance programs.
Beyond and beyond the internet, the NSA has striven to reach its tentacles into every new machine on earth.
Truly, some of the products in the catalog are at once Orwellian and James-Bondian.

Many of the devices, are worthy of entire threads and discussions themselves.

The specialists at ANT, which presumably stands for Advanced or Access Network Technology, could be described as master carpenters for the NSA's department for Tailored Access Operations (TAO). In cases where TAO's usual hacking and data-skimming methods don't suffice, ANT workers step in with their special tools, penetrating networking equipment, monitoring mobile phones and computers and diverting or even modifying data. Such "implants," as they are referred to in NSA parlance, have played a considerable role in the intelligence agency's ability to establish a global covert network that operates alongside the Internet.

So, this information being public, the smartest businessmen surely must be aware of the danger to which his company's data is exposed.
The potential for exploitation of such data is clear, particularly in the light that the driving forces behind the Security and Military Industries are Globalist Corporates- whom obviously are forcing their economy upon the world by any means they deem necessary, despite all ethical and moral implications.

It's funny that they are doing this now after the Superfish debacle.
Lenovo is a Chinese company and they had a bloatware program installed that could be used to initiate man-in-the-middle attacks.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

So they don't trust us now that they messed up.