The Latest in IT Security

By Matthew Miller BEIJING (Reuters) – Battling a perfect storm of government suspicion and pricing probes in China, U.S. technology companies are having to re-think how they sell hardware and services in the worlds second-biggest economy. U.S. multinationals, including IBM, Cisco Systems and Qualcomm, are looking to settle price-gouging investigations and restore trust with Chinese regulators in the wake of reports that U.S. government agencies directly collect data and tap networks of the biggest domestic technology companies. All U.S. IT firms are on the defensive in China, said Scott Kennedy, director of the Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business at Indiana University. They are all under suspicion as either witting or unwitting collaborators in the U.S. governments surveillance and intelligence gathering activities. Former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowdens revelations about U.S. government surveillance may cost U.S. technology firms billions of dollars in lost sales, analysts say.