PRISM Could Put The Kibosh On US Trade Abroad

Europeans are not taking revelations about the U.S. government's PRISM surveillance program in stride, and that could be exceedingly bad for U.S. businesses. One sector that's already seeing cause for alarm is cloud services. Interest in using U.S.-based cloud service providers has dramatically waned since PRISM erupted -- and things could get much worse, a recent survey found.

American cloud service providers seeking to do business abroad are feeling the fallout from the NSA's PRISM surveillance program, suggests a month-long online survey the Cloud Security Alliance initiated in June.

Fifty-six percent of more than 200 overseas respondents said they were less likely to use United States-based cloud providers, and another 10 percent had canceled projects to use U.S.-based cloud service providers.

However, 64 percent of more than 220 U.S.-based respondents said the disclosures about PRISM had not made it more difficult for them to do business, and only 36 percent said they did.