Sunday, June 15, 2014

A market for anti-NSA technology emerges

(Editor's note: In this guest essay, Joe Franscella, senior director at tech PR firm Trainer Communications, advances the notion that a niche market for anti-NSA surveillance products and services may be taking shape.)

Since Edward Snowden blew the lid off the National Security Agency's surveillance activities, a number of vendors, organizations and individuals have announced plans designed to disrupt the agency's authority and cyber-surveillance operations.

John McAfee recently announced Decentral, a pocket-sized device to block NSA spying. Battelle Memorial Institute says it has leveraged photons to deliver unbreakable encryption. And several tech giants have banded together to form the Reform Government Surveillance coalition. Even Microsoft has called the NSA an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT).

Most recently, anti-spying Blackphones have entered the mix, and the President last week announced that he is going to take action to better protect individual privacy.

None of the established vendors and consultancies that work in tech security and privacy, however, have figured out how to convince customers that they have solutions for sale that will impede the agency.

All know the NSA would view attempts to compete in such a market as a direct challenge; a challenge the founders of Lavabit, Silent Circle email and Cryptoseal might describe as "insurmountable."

Revenue is the great motivator, though, and with analysts reporting that NSA-driven trust issues could cost U.S. enterprises up to $180 billion in losses, it's only a matter of time before companies start spending to defend themselves against NSA cyber-surveillance attempts.

Once this starts, the allure of money budgeted towards anti-spying strategies will cause vendors and consultants to jump into the anti-NSA technology game.

As this new market arises, defining and ownership rights will be up for grabs. Any tech security or privacy vendor that wants to compete will have to identify a suspicious "su! rveillance" incident taking place among its customer base.

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Creative marketing and aggressive communications are key. We might soon see the introduction of a defining APT-like term such as Advanced Surveillance Threat (AST) or Advanced Surveillance Attack (ASA).

Vendors aiming to tap this emerging market will have to articulate discoveries, be visible at trade events and grab mindshare among top news sources and influential analysts.

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