djackson 22568 (12/16/2013)
Companies get attacked frequently because of the political opinions of the owners or management. I do not believe that it is at all a stretch to say that various administrations in the past, and certainly the future, have and will use anything they can to silence opposition. The NSA has ADMITTED it is using personal preferences such as sexual orientation, sexual habits and other data to attack the leaders of various organizations. How long before they use that information to attack CEOs? I would bet it is already happening.
I respect your opinion on this, and I would hope you are correct that the likelihood is low, but recent evidence indicates you may not be.
I'm not sure I am quite as concerned here as Mr. Jackson, but I also do think that information gets leaked. CEOs are friends, or potential employers, of people working at the NSA. They (NSA or government employees) might be willing to share confidential information that gets them a job, bonus, etc. I don't think it's some global conspiracy or consistent set of actions that occurs constantly, but I do think it can happen. It's human nature.
However, I agree with Jeff that it's not something that just started. This type of espionage has been happening with corporations, foreign governments, and likely our own, for a long time.