The Edward Snowden Scandal is a hot news worldwide. Government organizations like the NSA (National Security Agency)’s access to computer systems & networks around the world is really terrifying.
The BELOW is TRUE?
A document viewed by SPIEGEL resembling a product catalog reveals that an NSA division called ANT has burrowed its way into nearly all the security architecture made by the major players in the industry — including American global market leader Cisco and its Chinese competitor Huawei, but also producers of mass-market goods, such as US computer-maker Dell.
These NSA agents, who specialize in secret back doors, are able to keep an eye on all levels of our digital lives — from computing centers to individual computers, and from laptops to mobile phones. For nearly every lock, ANT seems to have a key in its toolbox. And no matter what walls companies erect, the NSA’s specialists seem already to have gotten past them.
Reduced Sales:
Organizations around the world are starting to worry about their privacy in the cloud data centers. some data-center hardware manufacturers are now facing reduced sales.
Cisco Systems Chief Executive Officer John Chambers suggested in the company’s earnings conference call with analysts that concerns about the NSA spying contributed to it’s decreased sales in China.
Chief financial officer Frank Calderone said that the projected revenue decline was partially due to the recent revelations about internet surveillance by the US National Security Agency, which prompted “a level of uncertainty or concern” among customers internationally. In the last quarter new orders dropped 12 percent in the developing world, with Brazil down 25 percent and Russia off 30 percent. (Nov 2013).
Yahoo also announced plans to encrypt all of its data because of the news “NSA have broke into the communication links that connect yahoo’s data centers”.
European commission also have said fear over spying and privacy risks should not stop the organization from utilizing the benefits of the cloud.
Present Mindset on the cloud adoption:
As an example, we think about Dropbox enterprise users,
Dropbox tells in its Security page:
Secure Storage
We encrypt the files that you store on Dropbox using the AES-256 standard, which is the same encryption standard used by banks to secure customer data. Encryption for storage is applied after files are uploaded, and we manage the encryption keys.
Dropbox uses Amazon S3 for data storage. Amazon stores data over several large-scale data centers. According to Amazon, they use military grade perimeter control berms, video surveillance, and professional security staff to keep their data centers physically secure.
You can find more information about Amazon’s security on the Amazon Web Services’ website.
Amazon and Dropbox also employ significant protection against network security issues such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, Man in the Middle (MITM) attacks, and packet sniffing.
Secure Transfers
Your files are sent between Dropbox’s desktop clients and our servers over a secure channel using 256-bit SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption, the standard for secure Internet network connections.
Your files are sent between Dropbox’s mobile apps and our servers over a secure channel using 256-bit SSL encryption where supported. Not all mobile media players support encrypted streaming, so media files streamed from our servers are not always encrypted.
But Dropbox use Amazon Web Services, and without knowing Amazon Cloud might use hardware devices from the above mentioned manufacturers which has NSA backdoor. So, where is the security?
But, personally I love Amazon Web Services.
Thank you for reading,
Have a safe day guys.