It's no surprise that around the globe, governments and businesses were furious about revelations by former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden regarding American intelligence snooping on the data of its own citizens. A lot of this has to do with protestations by national leaders whose own intelligence agencies do much the same thing, but with less success than the U.S. National Security Agency.

Forbes recently reported that Snowden's actions had an immediate effect on parts of the technology industry, but the fallout will soon move into other areas including in the global legal sector. Cybersecurity issues pose a threat to attorney-client privilege and new methods of communication have made electronic discovery and litigation support more complex.

Snowden's portrayal of a government tapping cell phones, cataloging call logs and hoovering up data traffic has kicked legislative bodies into gear. From the European Commission to the United Nations and national parliaments in Brazil, Germany, Japan and more, new cyber infrastructure and laws are moving ahead – aimed at bypassing routers, cables or other nodes vulnerable to the tentacles of the NSA. However, these actions are likely to make data even more accessible to the intelligence and law enforcement agencies of the governments leading these changes.