IBM denies links with NSA spying program

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IBM denied providing client data to the NSA or any other government agency under Prism. It said it does not have “backdoors” in its products or provide software source code or encryption keys to the NSA or any other government agency for accessing client data.

In a series of commitments to its customers, Robert C. Weber, (IBM’s senior vice president for legal and regulatory affairs, and general counsel wrote in the letter, which was also posted online, that “in general, if a government wants access to data held by IBM on behalf of an enterprise client, we would expect that government to deal directly with that client.”

But if served by the U.S. a national security order for data from an enterprise client and a “gag order” prohibiting it from discussing the order with the client, the company promises to challenge the gag order through legal and other means, it said.

For enterprise clients’ data stored outside the U.S., IBM holds that any U.S. government effort to obtain such data “should go through internationally recognized legal channels, such as requests for assistance under international treaties.” It would challenge through legal and other means a U.S. government order for access to data of enterprise clients stored outside the country, it added.

On the government policy front, IBM has described data localization requirements by countries as short-sighted policies, that “do little to improve security but distort markets and lend themselves to protectionist tendencies.” Governments should also not subvert commercial technologies, such as encryption, that are intended to protect business data, the company said in what appears to be a reference to reports that the NSA has been attempting to circumvent encryption technologies.

Other tech companies have also tried to reassure their customers in the wake of the Snowden disclosures. Microsoft told business and government customers worldwide in December that it is committed to informing them of legal orders related to their data, and will fight in court any ‘gag order’ that prevents it from sharing such information with customers. The company also plans to encrypt customers’ information moving between its data centers, with plans to complete the project by the end of 2014.

Yahoo and Google have also announced strengthening encryption of their services.


In December, the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Pension and Relief Fund sued IBM in a district court in New York, claiming that it failed to inform investors that sales in China would slow after disclosures that IBM was cooperating with the NSA spying program. Weber said at the time the suit was “pushing a wild conspiracy theory.” IBM had attributed a drop in hardware sales in the third quarter partly to delayed procurement by Chinese government agencies while the local government framed a new economic policy.

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