Surveillance Costs: NSA’s Impact on the Economy, Information Security, and Internet Freedom

02/25/2014

NewAmerica:

There’s a debate raging in DC and around the world about the extensive National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs that were first revealed this past summer–not only about whether the surveillance is consistent with constitutional and human rights, but also about the costs and the benefits of such mass surveillance. New America’s National Security Studies Program recently addressed the “benefits” question by releasing an in-depth research report demonstrating that the NSA programs have done little to prevent terrorism.

This event from New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) will look at the other side of the coin and examine the costs of the NSA programs. Such costs include not only the direct cost to the American taxpayer, but also the cost to the American Internet industry (by some estimates over $180 billion within the next few years), the cost to America’s foreign relations and its work to promote “Internet Freedom” globally, and finally, the cost to Internet security itself.

Introduction:
Anne-Marie Slaughter
President & CEO, New America Foundation 

Moderator:
Kevin Bankston
Policy Director, New America Foundation, Open Technology Institute

Featured Speakers:

Daniel Castro
Senior Analyst, The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF)

Mieke Eoyang
National Security Program Director, Third Way

Richard Fontaine
President, The Center for a New American Security (CNAS)

Ross Schulman
Public Policy and Regulatory Counsel,
The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA)

Micah Sherr
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Georgetown University 

Related Link: Tiny Constables and the Cost of Surveillance (Bankston/Soltani)

New America Foundation Report: “Do NSA’s Bulk Surveillance Programs Stop Terrorists?” Nope

01/13/2014

NewAmerica:

Our review of the government’s claims about the role that NSA “bulk” surveillance of phone and email communications records has had in keeping the United States safe from terrorism shows that these claims are overblown and even misleading.  An in-depth analysis of 225 individuals recruited by al-Qaeda or a like-minded group or inspired by al-Qaeda’s ideology, and charged in the United States with an act of terrorism since 9/11, demonstrates that traditional investigative methods, such as the use of informants, tips from local communities, and targeted intelligence operations, provided the initial impetus for investigations in the majority of cases, while the contribution of NSA’s bulk surveillance programs to these cases was minimal. Indeed, the controversial bulk collection of American telephone metadata, which includes the telephone numbers that originate and receive calls, as well as the time and date of those calls but not their content, under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, appears to have played an identifiable role in initiating, at most, 1.8 percent of these cases. NSA programs involving the surveillance of non-U.S. persons outside of the United States under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act played a role in 4.4 percent of the terrorism cases we examined, and NSA surveillance under an unidentified authority played a role in 1.3 percent of the cases we examined.

Surveillance of American phone metadata has had no discernible impact on preventing acts of terrorism and only the most marginal of impacts on preventing terrorist-related activity, such as fundraising for a terrorist group.

Furthermore, our examination of the role of the database of U.S. citizens’ telephone metadata in the single plot the government uses to justify the importance of the program – that of Basaaly Moalin, a San Diego cabdriver who in 2007 and 2008 provided $8,500 to al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia – calls into question the necessity of the Section 215 bulk collection program.

Additionally, a careful review of three of the key terrorism cases the government has cited to defend NSA bulk surveillance programs reveals that government officials have exaggerated the role of the NSA in the cases against David Coleman Headley and Najibullah Zazi, and the significance of the threat posed by a notional plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange.

Click on the link to go to a database of all 225 individuals, complete with additional details about them and the government’s investigations of these cases: http://natsec.newamerica.net/nsa/analysis

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How Much Will PRISM Cost the U.S. Cloud Computing Industry?

The National Security Agency surveillance programs aren’t just costing the United States credibility on the world stage — they’re costing domestic tech companies big money.

The recent revelations that the NSA is closely tracking the electronic footprints of foreign citizens could cut as much as $35 billion off the top lines of U.S. cloud computing companies over the next three years. It might also put the nation’s leadership position in the fast growing sector at stake.

That’s according to a new study by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, which tried to assess the financial toll of the clandestine PRISM program uncovered by The Guardian and Washington Post in early June.

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The ITIF based its conclusions, which it acknowledged were a rough guess, on a recent survey of 500 respondents by the Cloud Security Alliance. The industry group found that “56 percent of non-US residents were less likely to use US-based cloud providers, in light of recent revelations about government access to customer information.”

Moreover, some 36 percent of U.S. residents said that the NSA leaks have made it more difficult for them to “do business outside of the United States,” the ITIF report said.

Based on those figures, it concluded that:

On the low end, U.S. cloud computing providers might lose $21.5 billion over the next three years. This estimate assumes the U.S. eventually loses about 10 percent of foreign market to European or Asian competitors and retains its currently projected market share for the domestic market.

On the high end, U.S. cloud computing providers might lose $35.0 billion by 2016. This assumes the U.S. eventually loses 20 percent of the foreign market to competitors and retains its current domestic market share.

Related Links:

Encrypted email service used by Snowden shuts down not to be ‘complicit in crimes against the American people’ – RT

Silent Circle Preemptively Shuts Down Encrypted Email Service To Prevent NSA Spying – TechCrunch