NSA Spying to Cost US IT Companies $47 Billion Over Next Three Years

A Forrester Research study revealed that the US National Security Agency's PRISM surveillance program could cost US-based cloud and outsourcing vendors an overall three-year loss of $47 billion in revenues.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The US National Security Agency's (NSA) PRISM surveillance program could cost US-based cloud and outsourcing vendors an overall three-year loss of $47 billion in revenues, a Forrester Research study revealed.

Lost revenue from spending on cloud services and platforms is expected to amount to over $500 million in the period between 2014 and 2016, according to the analysis, released by the independent technology and market research company on April 1.

Twenty six percent of business and technology decision makers outside of the United States have already reduced or halted spending with US-based service providers, Forrester said. Between 2014 and 2016, the cloud revenue hit is projected to be $528 million.

Forrester stresses, however, that, while "significant," "these impacts are far less than speculated" and, since there are other options, besides avoiding US cloud vendors, the fallout of PRISM is unlikely to cripple American IT companies.

Information on PRISM, a mass electronic surveillance data mining system launched in 2007, as well as other NSA surveillance programs, was revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.

Defense and intelligence establishments in the United States have been at the centre of controversy in recent years in light of the security leaks.

Snowden has been charged with espionage in the United States. In 2013, he was granted temporary asylum in Russia and later received a residence permit valid until 2017.