Cyber cold war is clearly heating up. Nation economies may
start trending inward for IT and cyber support as fears about state-sponsored
hacking are on the rise. High-profile technology vendors are being exposed as
arms-length extensions of their motherlands state security apparatus. Examples include an expose' claiming
Kaspersky is working closely with FSB (link), the Snowden leak suggesting clear and
possibly extra-legal cooperation between the NSA and Facebook, Google, and
Apple. Consider the silent implications
of U.S. security companies that publish threat intelligence who are notoriously
silent when it comes to threat groups that tie back to the U.S. government. And
Chinese telecom giants like Huawei have already been suppressed in U.S. markets
due to security concerns. Conversely, China has exactly the same concerns
regarding imported technology.
Government agencies in all nations are notorious for mistrusting outside
technology. For example, in the U.S. government
you won't find Israeli technology deployed anywhere.
The State already practices cyber protectionism. As more high-profile
vendors continue to be exposed, will the civilian market respond in kind? Will governments take extra steps to regulate
the import of potentially untrusted technology?
Can a free market continue when the buyers can't be trusted to
understand the implications of cybersecurity?
-Greg
