Going To The Source

John Villasenor worries that the details of the NSA’s surveillance programs will open US companies to increased corporate espionage:

In addition to spurring discussion on the tension between civil liberties and antiterrorism policies, the NSA leaks will have another, less widely recognized consequence: They will significantly increase the level of state-sponsored economic espionage directed against American companies. Why? Because many people overseas will view the NSA’s data collection itself as the defining attribute of the story, with less consideration of the larger American security context that frames it. Some of them will conclude that leveling the playing field requires ramping up their own countries’ efforts to eavesdrop on data from American companies.

Benjamin Wittes agrees, pointing to the US’ double standard on matters like these:

[T]he U.S. position on cybersecurity is not exactly a model of consistency—amounting in effect to shock that anyone would conduct cyber attacks on us. Our position on espionage is similar: We engage in it unapologetically for our strategic purposes but we object strenuously to other countries—whose strategic purposes may be more economic than ours—conducting espionage against our companies.