Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations

[AU64 10,122]

Re Snowden....I don't know what to think about his claims...he was an outside contractor and I have to wonder why/how he got the access he claims he had.

Contractors have all sorts of access depending on their security clearance level and what projects they work on. This is not in any way unusual.

As for hacking China....I can't believe that is a surprise to anyone....including China. It's possible that most of what this guy claims to "know" he found out on the internet since there is generally nothing from him that hasn't been rumored or speculated elsewhere. He has definitely forced the issue into the open which is not where NSA wanted it to go....but the terrorists probably know more about what the US is doing in the way of data mining than the typical low information voter in the US who is more interested in what Bieber or Beyoncé are up to. For me the scary part is that so many people like Snowden have access to the data.....and can potentially use it for their own purposes.

Judging by the reaction by the NSA, I'd say he isn't "claiming" anything. He actually knows what he's talking about.

Who knows why NSA reacts they way they do? Maybe he is way off base and since Snowden talking to the media, NSA is content to let the world think he is telling all our secrets whereas he probably only knows 10%. If some guy 27 year old outside contractor has access to all of our truly secret materials we should all be scared. Where are the internal controls? Meanwhile, is most of this stuff we are reading truly surprising?

[TitanTiger 20,708]

Re Snowden....I don't know what to think about his claims...he was an outside contractor and I have to wonder why/how he got the access he claims he had.

Contractors have all sorts of access depending on their security clearance level and what projects they work on. This is not in any way unusual.

As for hacking China....I can't believe that is a surprise to anyone....including China. It's possible that most of what this guy claims to "know" he found out on the internet since there is generally nothing from him that hasn't been rumored or speculated elsewhere. He has definitely forced the issue into the open which is not where NSA wanted it to go....but the terrorists probably know more about what the US is doing in the way of data mining than the typical low information voter in the US who is more interested in what Bieber or Beyoncé are up to. For me the scary part is that so many people like Snowden have access to the data.....and can potentially use it for their own purposes.

Judging by the reaction by the NSA, I'd say he isn't "claiming" anything. He actually knows what he's talking about.

Who knows why NSA reacts they way they do? Maybe he is way off base and since Snowden talking to the media, NSA is content to let the world think he is telling all our secrets whereas he probably only knows 10%. If some guy 27 year old outside contractor has access to all of our truly secret materials we should all be scared. Where are the internal controls? Meanwhile, is most of this stuff we are reading truly surprising?

The internal controls are that they do a full background check including in person interviews with people you've worked with and known up to 10 years back. They run criminal background checks, credit checks and probably a host of other stuff no one knows about before granting a top secret clearance to a contractor. Then it will depend on what your actual job is that will determine your need to know as to what you'll have access to.

But it's not at all unusual or a cause for concern that a 27-year old would have access to stuff that falls within the lanes I described.