Snowden Speaks: The Shocking Truth About Government Surveillance

Explore the intriguing story of Edward Snowden, the man who captivated the world by unveiling America's top-secret surveillance operations.

ENGLISH LANGUAGES

1/3/20255 min read

Edward Snowden: The Man Behind the Leak

A single person managed to give a superpower like America a run for its money. In 2013, he stole over a million top-secret documents from the U.S. and laid them all bare for the world to see. Ever since then, he's been America's most wanted criminal for the past 11 years. But despite causing so much damage to the U.S. government, people around the world see him as a hero. So, how did he pull off stealing documents from the world's top-secret agency? Why did he leak them? And how has he managed to stay out of America's grasp after all this?

On June 6, 2013, the morning sun brought some serious trouble for the American government. The Guardian and The Washington Post published a series of reports revealing top-secret documents from the NSA, or National Security Agency. These documents shocked not only Americans but mobile users around the world when they found out that the American government was secretly monitoring every mobile user.

Unveiling the Prism Program

The Prism program was exposed—it's a secret initiative that allows the U.S. government to access data from millions of Verizon customers. Verizon is a mobile operator in the U.S. Just like security agencies in India and Pakistan hacked into military computers in Hong Kong and China, they also tapped Angela Merkel's phone when she was the Chancellor of Germany. The British government's GCHQ was running a program to keep an eye on its citizens, and leaked documents revealed conversations between the NSA and GCHQ.

In this, both parties were trying to figure out how to trick people and keep the propagandists in check. At first, no one knew who leaked the documents or if they were even true because news agencies aren’t required to disclose their sources. But just three days later, a guy stepped up claiming responsibility for leaking these top-secret documents: 29-year-old Edward Snowden, a high school dropout. He started his career with the U.S. military but left after just a year.

Edward Snowden's Path to the NSA

fter graduating, Edward Noden got a job as a security guard at the University of Maryland in 2005. He wasn't exactly a star student, but his computer skills were so strong that the CIA hired him. After spending a few years with the CIA, he was brought on by the American tech giant Dell in 2009. At that time, Dell had a contract to upgrade the computer systems for the National Security Agency, and they assigned Edward to that project. Initially, he was in a supervisory role, but later he became a cyber strategist. That's where Edward Snowden's journey with the CIA and NSA began.

If he was considered a gem, then what happened that led him to be called a traitor by the very agencies? The truth is, there was an incident that turned Edward from a cyber strategist into a traitor. While operating and upgrading the NSA’s computers, Edward discovered that the National Security Agency had the power to access the personal data of any mobile user. He even looked at some records that he initially thought belonged to international criminals, but in reality, these weren’t criminals at all; they were just peaceful American citizens.

The Transformation from Strategist to Traitor

During a session in the U.S. Congress about intelligence issues, American politician Ron Wyden asked National Security Agency Director James Clapper in front of everyone if his agency collects data on Americans. This session was also broadcasted on national television. James Clapper replied in front of millions that no, their job is only about foreign intelligence. Edward Snowden was stunned to see his director outright lying on TV.

He got so mad that after three days, he quit his job at Dell, where he was making $200,000 a year. In 2013, he left Dell and joined Booz Allen Hamilton, a company that works for the U.S. military, CIA, and NSA. There, he got assigned to a project for the NSA. The National Security Agency claims that Edward stole so many files from their system that they’re having a hard time even estimating how many there are, with the number possibly exceeding two million. But what exactly did Edward do that made it top secret?

The Congressional Deception

He copied files from the agency without anyone noticing. What's surprising is that he didn't use any complicated hacking tools; he did it all with a small USB drive. But how? Normally, offices ban USB drives because of the risk of data theft. Plus, in any company where there’s confidential data, not every employee has the authority to access that data. And these were the computers of the National Security Agency, no less.

There’s no way to secure things. Before Edward Snowden did what he did, he made a plan to escape and used his location to his advantage since he was hired by Booz Allen Hamilton for a project with the NSA. Because of this, they kept him 5,000 miles away in Hawaii from the NSA’s headquarters in Maryland. Hawaii is six hours behind Maryland, which meant that while Edward was working in his office in Hawaii, everyone at the NSA headquarters was off the clock. Another perk was that he had access to the NSA headquarters' servers through a thin client.

The Great Escape with a USB

Edward had access through a system that was actually outdated. The third advantage was that Edward himself was the system administrator, which meant he had a high-security clearance for his profile. This gave him more rights, allowing him to copy data from any system without being noticed. Edward Noden took advantage of this and managed to copy over 2 million files from 5,000 miles away without anyone realizing it. After just four weeks of working in the office, Edward decided to expose the NSA's actions to the world. He gathered all the documents.

He cleverly snuck the USB drive out, hiding it from the security guard, and took a sick day off. He turned off his phone and flew straight from Hawaii to Hong Kong. But when he didn’t come back for several days and his phone was still off, the NSA got suspicious and started looking for him. Once he got to Hong Kong, he met up with some trusted journalists, handed over the documents, and the next day those documents made headlines around the world. Edward Snowden’s leaked documents sparked a whole new debate about the NSA’s secret powers globally.

Exposing the NSA to the World

But the theft of government property led to accusations of breaching national security systems and leaking top-secret information to unauthorized individuals. The American government demanded that Hong Kong hand over Edward, but he had already planned his every move. By then, he had caught a flight to Russia, where he initially received asylum. Then in September 2022, he had a chat with Putin, where he explained how our own agencies spy on us. He mentioned a tool called "Nose Smurf" that targets our phones.

International Pursuit and Asylum

"This microphone gives access to security agencies, allowing them to listen to surrounding sounds without any interruptions. Some people see Edward Snowden as a traitor, while others think he's a hero for exposing the NSA's true face to the world. What do you think about this? Let me know in the comments section. I hope you all like and share this blog from BlogifyHub. Thanks so much for your loving comments! See you in the next awesome blog!"