Trending from impartial to Kudos for Edward Snowden

The gut feeling people get when they discover the US government can just open and read an intimate email sent between two lovers, the feeling of it only happens to others is quickly replaced with a feeling of violation. Suddenly the semi comforting thought it can only happen to others is replaced with feelings ranging from anger to being totally violated as people simply conclude it is not others, and they themselves have been spied on.

Depending on a persons personality type that range from Alpha to the most shy and withdrawn, the thought of being violated leaves only one response that is uniquely tied to our primal survival instincts. The feelings of negativeness grossly outweighs any positive feelings and rationality. After all we are not talking about human reasoning at this point, we are talking about an adrenalin driven instinct. Any violation of what we feel is our business and our business alone triggers anger, particularly so if it can have a negative effect on income needed to survive. Simply put it is a rape of privacy. The fact is there is not a person in the world who does not have some skeletons in their closet. Every person who has ever done something they now regret they ever did and hopes nobody finds out, that feeling of being discovered is now peeked.

It seems that every bit of news that is made public about what the US Government has been doing, it gets more and more personal. It certainly makes you wonder what is next. It can also make you wonder as to why the hard drive LED on your computer is so busy when you are not at your computer. At the rate it is going, the next bit of news could possibly be the US Government is in there snooping around as well. Only time will tell.

If you were to even stand back just a bit and compare the US aggression towards Edward Snowden and Wikileaks Julian Assange, it is very clear Edward Snowden is a much bigger target. So much so to cause a diplomatic fallout between the US and Russia. There was a more muted exchange between Ecuador and the US over Assange, or at least it was not as hot of a news item at the time. Assange talked about what the US did past tense, however Snowden is talking about what the US is doing present tense. So it is a no brainer as to why Edward Snowden is such a hot ticket.

Quoting The BBC

US and UK intelligence have reportedly cracked technology used to encrypt internet services such as online banking, medical records and email.

Disclosures by leaker Edward Snowden allege the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the UK’s GCHQ are hacking key online security protocols.

The encryption techniques targeted are used by popular internet services such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo.

The NSA is said to spend $250m (£160m) a year on the top secret program.

It is codenamed Bullrun, an American civil war battle, according to the documents published by the Guardian in conjunction with the New York Times and ProPublica.

The British counterpart program is called Edgehill, after the first major engagement of the English civil war, say the documents.
‘Behind-the-scenes persuasion’

The reports say the UK and US intelligence agencies are focusing on the encryption used in 4G smartphones, email, online shopping and remote business communication networks.
Edward Snowden US leaker Edward Snowden has been granted asylum in Russia

Under Bullrun, it is said that the NSA has built powerful supercomputers to try to crack the technology that scrambles and encrypts personal information when internet users log on to access various services.

The NSA also collaborated with unnamed technology companies to build so-called back doors into their software – something that would give the government access to information before it is encrypted and sent over the internet, it is reported.

As well as supercomputers, methods used include “technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion to undermine the major tools protecting the privacy of everyday communications”, the New York Times reports.

The US reportedly began investing billions of dollars in the program in 2000 after its initial efforts to install a “back door” in all encryption systems were thwarted.
‘Gobsmacked’

During the next decade, it is said the NSA employed code-breaking computers and began collaborating with technology companies at home and abroad to build entry points into their products.

The documents provided to the Guardian by Mr Snowden do not specify which companies participated.

The NSA also hacked into computers to capture messages prior to encryption, and used broad influence to introduce weaknesses into encryption standards followed by software developers the world over, the New York Times reports.

When British analysts were first told of the extent of the program they were “gobsmacked”, according to one memo among more than 50,000 documents shared by the Guardian.

NSA officials continue to defend the agency’s actions, claiming it will put the US at considerable risk if messages from terrorists and spies cannot be deciphered.

But some experts argue that such efforts could actually undermine national security, noting that any back doors inserted into encryption programs can be exploited by those outside the government.

It is the latest in a series of intelligence leaks by Mr Snowden, a former NSA contractor, who began providing caches of sensitive government documents to media outlets in June.

Mr Snowden, whom the US wants to extradite, has been granted temporary asylum in Russia.

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