What information does Snowden have that the NSA is so concerned about?

[Hekate]

77. US tech firms that send employees to China are concerned enough about intellectual property theft...

... that they make a point of having their employees take "clean" laptops with them. Not "cleaned up" and not simply encrypted. New, empty of everything but the task at hand.

The Chinese (and the Russians) are extremely sophisticated in their data-vacuuming abilities.

I think Snowden is so outclassed he must be gasping like a fish if he has realized it.

One source:

http://www.law.com/corporatecounsel/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1359312802334&thepage=1&slreturn=20130614202247

For Western lawyers working in China, doing business can require a curious combination of legal skills and 007-like stealth. Leave your laptop in your hotel room? Expect it to be searched. Call up a website to check the weather? You might load code that pulls data off your hard disk. Does your PC weigh more than it did when you left the States? That could be a homing device, implanted on the sly and now transmitting information about the merger your client is planning. It might sound like stuff from a James Bond movie. But the threats are real, say law firm technology chiefs—and worrisome.

The perils of using technology in China isn't a topic that law firms like to talk about publicly. "This is a very, very sensitive subject in our firm," says one chief information officer who declined to talk about the topic, even on a confidential basis. Says another: "Public statements might be considered the equivalent of 'poking the bear.' On this topic, I believe we are better served staying quietly diligent."

The U.S. government has been less reticent. On its website, the U.S. Department of State advises travelers to China that Internet and telephone use "may be monitored on-site or remotely, and personal possessions in hotel rooms, including computers, may be searched without your consent or knowledge." In February 2012 national intelligence director James Clapper told the House intelligence committee that "China and Russia are of particular concern. . . . Entities within these countries are responsible for extensive illicit intrusions into U.S. computer networks and theft of U.S. intellectual property."

Read more: http://www.law.com/corporatecounsel/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1359312802334&thepage=1&slreturn=20130614202247#ixzz2Z4M6baWD