Colocation America
0
  • SERVICES
    • DEDICATED SERVERS
    • COLOCATION
      • 1U RACK SPACE
      • 2U RACK SPACE
      • 4U RACK SPACE
      • 10U RACK SPACE
      • 21U HALF RACK
      • 42U FULL RACK
    • CONNECT TO THE CLOUD
    • MANAGED HOSTING
    • IP TRANSIT SERVICES
  • DATA CENTERS
    • DATA CENTER LOCATIONS
      • LOS ANGELES
      • SAN FRANCISCO
      • CHICAGO
      • NEW YORK
      • NEW JERSEY
      • BOSTON
      • PHILADELPHIA
      • CONNECTICUT
      • MIAMI
    • NETWORK
    • SECURITY
    • CERTIFICATIONS
    • SUPPORT
  • ABOUT US
    • HISTORY
    • CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
  • INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
    • WRITE FOR US
    • STYLE GUIDE
  • CONTACT US
GET A QUOTE
Colocation America
0
  • SERVICES
    • DEDICATED SERVERS
    • COLOCATION
      • 1U RACK SPACE
      • 2U RACK SPACE
      • 4U RACK SPACE
      • 10U RACK SPACE
      • 21U HALF RACK
      • 42U FULL RACK
    • CONNECT TO THE CLOUD
    • MANAGED HOSTING
    • IP TRANSIT SERVICES
  • DATA CENTERS
    • DATA CENTER LOCATIONS
      • LOS ANGELES
      • SAN FRANCISCO
      • CHICAGO
      • NEW YORK
      • NEW JERSEY
      • BOSTON
      • PHILADELPHIA
      • CONNECTICUT
      • MIAMI
    • NETWORK
    • SECURITY
    • CERTIFICATIONS
    • SUPPORT
  • ABOUT US
    • HISTORY
    • CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
  • INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
    • WRITE FOR US
    • STYLE GUIDE
  • CONTACT US
GET A QUOTE
Colocation America
0
  • SERVICES
    • DEDICATED SERVERS
    • COLOCATION
      • 1U RACK SPACE
      • 2U RACK SPACE
      • 4U RACK SPACE
      • 10U RACK SPACE
      • 21U HALF RACK
      • 42U FULL RACK
    • CONNECT TO THE CLOUD
    • MANAGED HOSTING
    • IP TRANSIT SERVICES
  • DATA CENTERS
    • DATA CENTER LOCATIONS
      • LOS ANGELES
      • SAN FRANCISCO
      • CHICAGO
      • NEW YORK
      • NEW JERSEY
      • BOSTON
      • PHILADELPHIA
      • CONNECTICUT
      • MIAMI
    • NETWORK
    • SECURITY
    • CERTIFICATIONS
    • SUPPORT
  • ABOUT US
    • HISTORY
    • CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
  • INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
    • WRITE FOR US
    • STYLE GUIDE
  • CONTACT US
Colocation America
0
  • SERVICES
    • DEDICATED SERVERS
    • COLOCATION
      • 1U RACK SPACE
      • 2U RACK SPACE
      • 4U RACK SPACE
      • 10U RACK SPACE
      • 21U HALF RACK
      • 42U FULL RACK
    • CONNECT TO THE CLOUD
    • MANAGED HOSTING
    • IP TRANSIT SERVICES
  • DATA CENTERS
    • DATA CENTER LOCATIONS
      • LOS ANGELES
      • SAN FRANCISCO
      • CHICAGO
      • NEW YORK
      • NEW JERSEY
      • BOSTON
      • PHILADELPHIA
      • CONNECTICUT
      • MIAMI
    • NETWORK
    • SECURITY
    • CERTIFICATIONS
    • SUPPORT
  • ABOUT US
    • HISTORY
    • CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
  • INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
    • WRITE FOR US
    • STYLE GUIDE
  • CONTACT US
Colocation America
0
  • SERVICES
    • DEDICATED SERVERS
    • COLOCATION
      • 1U RACK SPACE
      • 2U RACK SPACE
      • 4U RACK SPACE
      • 10U RACK SPACE
      • 21U HALF RACK
      • 42U FULL RACK
    • CONNECT TO THE CLOUD
    • MANAGED HOSTING
    • IP TRANSIT SERVICES
  • DATA CENTERS
    • DATA CENTER LOCATIONS
      • LOS ANGELES
      • SAN FRANCISCO
      • CHICAGO
      • NEW YORK
      • NEW JERSEY
      • BOSTON
      • PHILADELPHIA
      • CONNECTICUT
      • MIAMI
    • NETWORK
    • SECURITY
    • CERTIFICATIONS
    • SUPPORT
  • ABOUT US
    • HISTORY
    • CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
  • INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
    • WRITE FOR US
    • STYLE GUIDE
  • CONTACT US
Colocation America
  • SERVICES
    • DEDICATED SERVERS
    • COLOCATION
      • 1U RACK SPACE
      • 2U RACK SPACE
      • 4U RACK SPACE
      • 10U RACK SPACE
      • 21U HALF RACK
      • 42U FULL RACK
    • CONNECT TO THE CLOUD
    • MANAGED HOSTING
    • IP TRANSIT SERVICES
  • DATA CENTERS
    • DATA CENTER LOCATIONS
      • LOS ANGELES
      • SAN FRANCISCO
      • CHICAGO
      • NEW YORK
      • NEW JERSEY
      • BOSTON
      • PHILADELPHIA
      • CONNECTICUT
      • MIAMI
    • NETWORK
    • SECURITY
    • CERTIFICATIONS
    • SUPPORT
  • ABOUT US
    • HISTORY
    • CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
  • INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
    • WRITE FOR US
    • STYLE GUIDE
  • CONTACT US
  • Home
  • Industry Insights
  • Hosting News
  • Stormy Clouds: Should Tech Companies Partner with NSA?
HIPAA Omnibus Rule Takes Effect; Now What?
September 27, 2013
mobile phone security
How Secure is The Data on Your Phone?
October 3, 2013

Stormy Clouds: Should Tech Companies Partner with NSA?

Published by scott on October 2, 2013
Image Alt
Categories
  • Hosting News
Tags
nsa maryland data center1

nsa maryland data center1

Recent statements made by NSA’s director of information insurance have many wondering; Can we trust the NSA?

The pre-9/11 America we all knew and loved is gone forever. Even 12 years later, our collective fear is ever more prevalent. Agencies like the NSA (National Security Agency) work to defend this country against cyber-attacks; this is a good thing. Image Alt

However, recent announcements made by NSA’s director of information assurance, Debora Plunkett during a New York tech conference have many questioning: Can we trust the NSA?

The NSA wants tech companies to cooperate in an effort to automate built-in defense mechanisms within cloud infrastructures.

Put even more bluntly, the NSA wants to gradually erode encryption services so it’s easier to spy on us. This same level of transparency has already infiltrated the walls of our nations data centers but stands to threaten the US Cloud market as well, of which, leads the world in cloud spending.

National security is one thing but so is our right to privacy – both in the workplace and in our personal lives. If US tech companies are to partner up with the NSA, we may just lose our economic edge.

Cloud Economics

For one thing, the job of an ISP or cloud provider is to create a secure networking environment for consumers. Companies looking for secure cloud providers, take for example, Google or AWS (Amazon Web Services) might just choose to go overseas to a country that has strict privacy laws. Bottom line: the US loses money, if not slowly over the course of 10-15 years. Not good! Furthermore Civil liberties and specific rights to privacy are at risk. Yes, it’s true, there are terrible people who wish to inflict harm on the United States, but US residents still have rights otherwise they wouldn’t be living and/or doing business here.

Edward Snowden might have saved us a lot of face; before the scandal broke the Obama administration was getting ready to sign off on wiretaps. Now, the administration is backing off such initiatives for fear of public backlash. For now, it seems as though there is nothing to worry about. Besides, it is not that easy for the government to hack into a data center to retrieve encrypted information, which is precisely why they are asking tech companies to cooperate. Unless, they had the encryption keys to unlock security protocols in highly automated networking environments. Is that how they do it?

An Overheated Debate

Security experts argue that when it comes down to it, the NSA has little control over encryption services. If they want access, they’re going to have to get it the hard way: through use of force, or better yet, hack into the system. All cloud providers have to do is stick to the protocol; implement proper encryption keys across all visible access points. At the very least, cloud providers should not make it easy on the NSA. That is just asking for trouble. Again, if you were a customer of Cloud Company A, then suddenly learned that they were willingly turning over confidential information, would you be apt to walk away from your contract?

Likely so, especially if you valued your privacy. And where would you go? To cloud company B in Switzerland, where privacy laws are much more stringent?  The point being cloud companies have little incentive to work together with the NSA, other than for the sake of national security.

They might realize that it is not in their best interest to willingly cooperate with the NSA’s wishes once they start losing cloud customers. Again, the forecast is just a prediction of what could happen – and customers have a right to question whether or not US cloud providers have best interests in mind. Until push comes to shove, it’s best if US tech companies not hop into bed with the NSA. Doing so could have brash economic consequences.

By James Mulvey.

Share
0
Image Alt
scott

Related posts

hthsorp6

hthsorp6

October 28, 2021

How to Host an Entire Server on a Raspberry Pi


Read more
hosting affects websites

hosting affects websites

June 11, 2019

How Your Web Hosting Service Affects Your Website


Read more
hosting with colocation

hosting with colocation

January 2, 2019

Various Types of Hosting to Optimize Your Business


Read more

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

COLOCATION SERVICES

Managed Colocation
Mac Mini Hosting
Data Storage & Management
Data Backup & Recovery
Consulting

DEDICATED SERVER PLANS

Linux
Windows
Storage Servers
Custom Servers
Bare Metal Servers

WHY US?

Connectivity
100% Network Uptime
Network Speed Test and Traceroute
Client Reviews
Corporate News

LEARN MORE

Data Center Tier Standards
How Does Ping Work
Calculate Bandwidth
IP Addresses and Subnets
IPv4 Subnet Chart

TOP NEWS POSTS

More RAM or a Faster Processor?
How to Catch a Hacker
Server Admin Tools
Benefits of Data Mining
Static vs Dynamic IP Addresses

LATEST NEWS BY TOPIC

Technology
Hosting
Data Center
Cyber Security
Fun

Image Alt

PHONE:
1-888-505-COLO
1-213-928-6929 (Local)

ADDRESS:
9360 W. Flamingo Rd.
Ste. 178
Las Vegas, NV 89147

© 2022 Colocation America. All Rights Reserved.
GET QUOTE
0

$0.00

✕

Login

Lost your password?