Global fallout from the RSA/NSA cooperation pact and compromised U.S technology giants.

12/25/2013 | vanity (sort of)

[Usagi_yo]

The NSA and RSA have reported to have made a deal. In exchange for "back door privileges" the NSA paid RSA $10M.

Thanks in a large part to Snowden, we now know that this story is true, particularly when you read the carefully crafted statement from the RSA denying they sold a back door to the NSA -- They just happened to accept $10M from the NSA at the time they were selecting a known faulty and broken random number generator used in encryption.

Now we've all read about the global fallout and protestations from foreign governments saying how upset they are over this.

Just how upset? Consider this:

Large global corporations are now renegotiating their contracts with American Technology providers, like Verizon, AT&T, Google, and the like and inserting the provision that all their corporate Data is forbidden to reside in U.S cyber space. Next is critical communications not cross through the U.S cyber space.

This is heavy stuff if true, but I feel it doesn't go far enough. I think these global companies that have been spied upon through NSA/U.S technology company collusion have the right to invalidate any and all patents, copyrights and IP of the technology companies that participated with the NSA and build their own services based on the technology it needs to avoid U.S government snooping.

The NSA/RSA is as big of a breach of trust and security as the NSA secretly spying on U.S citizens. In fact you can say that the breach actually enabled the NSA to do indiscriminate spying.

- facts and assertions drawn from various sources, if you shoot me a private message I can give you pointers if you want.

[lafarge]

Yep, companies cooperating with the NSA should be legally destroyed through patent and other regulatory violations, as well as public avoidance, and their assets sold off to the highest bidder. We may not be able to control our .gov but we can sure as hell control who we do business with.

[KarlInOhio]

How is dealing with the NSA cause for canceling patents? Market condemnation, loss of business and even bankruptcy, yes. But taking their patents would be like taking a car company’s patents because they didn’t sell street cars that can go 150 mph at the request if the Transportation Department.

[GladesGuru]

“But taking their patents would be like taking a car company’s patents because they didn’t sell street cars that can go 150 mph at the request if the Transportation Department.”

If a company sells a known defective product, and what is more defective that a computer security program with a back door, then if teh judgment is such that sale of the company assets must include the patents, what is different than any other satisfaction of judgment?

[ThunderSleeps]

I hope my company drops RSA in the next couple of weeks. If I was the head of IT/security that would be job #1 in the new year.

[Usagi_yo]

That’s not an equitable comparison.

The NSA compromised U.S technology companies by:

Blackmail
Bribery
Strong arming
surreptitiously through agents

Those companies then provided technological services for foreign Corporations of which at least some of them had expectations of privacy and security.

So it’s like this — Say Microsoft sold licenses for 1000 instances of Windows, SQL, MSword and MSoutlook.

Now the Corporation finds out that there are NSA backdoors into the software they are paying to use. These NSA backdoors go far beyond NSA as other more (subjectively) nefarious organizations find out they too can use the back doors.

What’s the company to do? Take Obama’s word that the U.S won’t do that anymore? Take the NSA word that ‘they’ll fix’ it?

It’s a violation of reasonable expectations if not outright violations of service contracts and non-disclosures (notice now how everybody has been including exemptions for information they may provide in secret to applicable government agencies?.

And we all know and it’s been reported over the years that the U.S government spies on foreign corporations as a form of strategic economic policy.

So, back at you. Why shouldn’t these U.S technology providers have their IP, patents and copyrights nullified?

[Usagi_yo]

I don’t know what you’re asking here, but my thought is that the software is *not* defective or broken, but compromised and purposefully unsecured so that they can be spied upon.

[lavaroise]

They know who we are and bus us around, but we know not each other in America anymore. Good job Obama. Time to set up the counties vs. the Feds and their treachery of regionalizing america under UN-Islam-Chinese-Russian banner. We are a colonony of our self prepapring the ground for some infamous wedding from hell’s organizing to hell.

[null and void]

I use a Russian CAD program and a Russian anti-virus.

Although I have no expectation of real privacy, or security, I am avoiding the certainty of compromise that using software from a company under the US government's thumb would give me.

[catnipman]

All of the big Internet backbone switches have NSA back-doors built in now. I have a friend who worked for Juniper Systems on a “special” AT&T project. He quit pretty quickly without saying why, even though he had relocated for the job. I always had the impression they wanted him to work on spy software for their switches and he refused and quit.

Level 3, AT&T and the other major backbone providers who use these switches know their Internet backbone switches have interception software built-in by the OEM manufacturers based on NSA specifications. However, the carriers won’t say a peep though because they win multi-billion dollar bids from the feds for providing the private backbone structures for the defense department Internets as well as a plethora of private federal civilian backbones.

[GladesGuru]

I was suggesting that the sale of what is supposed to be secure programs, while knowing that access to undisclosed third parties is fraudulent.