Edward
Snowden brought to the world’s attention the danger of hacking by his
spectacular heist in the history of spycraft.
Snowden was charged with theft and violations relating to the Espionage
Act. A short while ago, stores such as
Michaels had their systems hacked into.
Information from customer accounts was stolen to steal their
identities, unsuspecting victims buying art and craft supplies. By using those machines to swipe your credit
and debit cards at many of the stores is putting ourselves at risk along with the
convenience of on-line banking and on-line marketing. Coleen Rowley, FBI agent,
compared Snowden to Benjamin Franklin, who was postmaster general in 1773 and
he took advantage of his position to provide letters from American officials
who were secretly collaborating with British authorities.
Let’s
rehash about Edward Snowden, born June 21, 1983. He was an American computer specialist and
former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He served as a former contractor for the
National Security Agency (NSA). He became international news when he
disclosed thousands of classified documents to several media outlets; Google,
Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, AOL, PalTalk and Yahoo. The documents revealed operational details of
global surveillance programs run by the NSA and other governments: United
Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand along with the cooperation of a number of businesses and European
governments. The release of classified
material was referred to as the most significant leak in U.S. history. Internet surveillance programs such as PRISM,
MUSCULAR, XKeystone, Tempora, and the large collection of U.S. and European
telephone metadata were exposed. Snowden leaked
information from these documents to “The Guardian” and “The Washington Post”
while he was employed under a NSA contract.
Snowden has been referred to as a hero,
a whistleblower, a dissident, a traitor and a patriot. These disclosures have inspired debates
over mass surveillance, government secrecy, and has brought up questions about
national security and privacy of U.S. citizens.
Two court rulings have brought into question NSA’s bulk collection of
telephone metadata.
Snowden
is regarded as a fugitive by American authorities who charged him with
espionage. He is residing in an
undisclosed location in Russia and is seeking asylum in Europe. Snowden presently serves as Rector of the
University of Glasgow, a three year post.
He also serves on the “Freedom of the Press Foundation board of
directors. Some of the media outlets and
politicians have called for leniency in the form of clemency, amnesty and
pardon. Otherwise his acts are being
heralded by many.
We
are being watched. The cell phone in our
pockets tracks our movements and stores that information with our service
providers. This makes me happy that I
don’t use a cell phone on a regular basis, only when I am on the road which isn’t
often. Email chats and text messages we
create map our social relations and records our thoughts. Credit card purchases demonstrate our
spending habits and tastes. Mass transit
data bases records our travel when we board subways and buses. The search engines we enter on our computers such
as Google preserves our searches and the information can be linked to our
computers for a standard period of nine months.
The
progression of technologies will even add more data to the grid. These technologies involve wearable computing
devices that monitor our pulse. Surveillance
cameras are rigged with facial-recognition software. The Nordstrom and Apple retail companies are
exploring technology that will measure and record how long you linger before
any single display. Our information is wanted and used in ways
that are not always in our best interests and violates our privacy. i
The
next time you swipe your card at Walmart or Michaels for that matter keep in
mind who has privy to that information.
When you look up things by using search engines, remember that Google
and other companies may be storing your information for future surveillance or
for profit interests. Snowden brought to
attention how much information is being stored by the NSA along with other governmental and private companies. We are being watched. We are all living in glass houses being
watched by those who don’t have anything better to do. Our tax dollars going to very unworthy causes
while our privacy is being violated.
i Scherer, M. December 23, 2013 Issue. Time Magazine. Number Two Edward Snowden: The Dark
Prophet.
I refuse to live in big brother fear.
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