The recent disclosures indicating the capacity of the US National Security Agency would be able to crack codes that protect online traffic of the largest Internet firms currently in operation would do more harm than good. This is further proof of the reports on government spying, as earlier reported in the Snowden case and its consequent fallout.
Now, the NSA has fulfilled its goal of being able to break the encryption of email as well as e commerce activities, medical records and even inane web activities. This was confirmed by the New York Times, the Guardian and ProPublica. These news organizations have also reported that the NSA has been able to enter or was provided access to databases of major Internet firms that operate email and social media.
Overall, the NSA spends early USD250 million per year on programs with technology companies to coverly influence product designs. There was no mention who these companies were that was working with the NSA nor was there mention as to the extent of their participation.
According to the site indefenseofdata.com, the average cost of a compromised record, be they be damaged by a malicious, criminal or negligent act, was pegged at USD157.00. This was further elaborated in the cited source 2013 Cost of Data Breach: Global Analysis, in the United States alone, the total cost per company of data breaches was at USD5.4 million.
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