So the spies actually spy. Shock, horror.
The media was full of the alleged actions of the US government and the existence of a programme called Prism.
Networks and the monitoring of them have been fair game since they came into existence and to believe otherwise is rather naive. One can only hope that any monitoring is appropriate, controlled and legal.
Given that such alleged monitoring activities are likely to be conducted by many nations and, given that those nations will have a pretty good idea what others do, I personally doubt that these revelations will significantly raise the risk level for the US government.
Yes, there will be a blip of increased malicious activity from some quarters against US systems, but upticks of such activity can be generated by many events.
The public, left to their own devices, will quickly forget.
Peter Wenham is a committee member of the BCS Security Forum strategic panel and director of information assurance consultancy Trusted Management.
05 Jul 2013