“There can be no faith in
government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny - they should be
setting the example of transparency.” Since the revelation of the information
that Edward Snowden released, this ideology has been disputed countless times,
with a multitude of changes throughout the world as a result. When there were unwarranted
modifications to the monitoring of American citizens as a result of the
September 11th attacks, not everybody was on the same page. General
Michael Hayden, the former director of the National Security Agency (NSA), was
a major player in issuing the directive to create such a program. Being in a
position that results in being a scapegoat when America is attacked with a loss
of over 3,000 lives, Hayden was in a tough situation. He saw that his agency
was not demonstrating a high enough level of effort in order to stop attacks of September 11th’s
magnitude, and needed to take steps to tighten national security. In his
opinion, monitoring all communications was the best strategy to accomplish this
goal. However, according to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978
(FISA), this is not permitted without a warrant. Not everyone agreed with Gen.
Hayden’s decision to go through with monitoring communications against the FISA
law. Some were so passionate about not wanting this to develop that they felt
the need to act as a whistleblower, or “a person who exposes misconduct,
alleged dishonest or illegal activity occurring in an organization.” While
others, such as Bill Binney and Thomas Drake were quickly silenced by the NSA
for their efforts at exposing the surveillance program, Edward Snowden provided
what the other two couldn’t: hard evidence. Snowden had access to thousands of
documents which outlined the exact way that the program worked because he
already had the responsibility of moving the documents, and therefore, the
access to share them with whichever news agency he pleased. Having such a
convincing argument from an internal source who claims to be fighting for the
people has created tremors throughout the world. While one of the biggest
effects may be seen as public knowledge of secret government activities, there
are more profound effects that are also evident; including the way citizens
view their governments, amendments to foreign communication methods, and
increased attention to the security of cloud computing in the business
community.
When
the earlier whistleblowers made their attempts to expose the NSA’s surveillance
activities, a barrage of questions were thrown at our government leaders. In an
attempt to avoid conflict and the shutting down of the program, many
high-ranking leaders of our government either avoided exposing the full extent
of the program’s capabilities or blatantly denied the range of capabilities
that the program encompassed. When Edward Snowden finally did have the chance in
June 2013 to provide proof that the government was conducting warrantless electronic
communication surveillance on American citizens, the worldwide trust in the
American government was severely damaged. Both American and foreign citizens
were shocked that the government had the capabilities of hiding something so
major and arguably illegal from public knowledge. If this kind of conduct took
ten years to be exposed, what else could the American government be keeping
quiet about? A large number of people were severely offended to know that
non-elected officials of government would have the ability to access their
personal telephone and email communications. In fact, according to a survey
conducted by CNN, only 13% of Americans agree that the U.S. government “can be
trusted to do what is right always or most of the time.” Compared to 60% in
2002 according to Gallup, the Snowden revelations show that there has been a
large impact on the faith in our leaders. However, the lack of trust spreads
further than American citizens to the point where foreign governments have made
amendments to their electronic communications.
Another result that may not have been intended
as a result of the documents that were released by Edward Snowden is that
foreign communication methods have been changed or secured over time. After
seeing that the U.S. government had been accessing electronic communication,
foreign entities have shown that they have taken advantage of this knowledge by
being more careful about the way that they communicate. Since the documents
that were leaked included technical procedures pertaining to how communications
were intercepted, organizations that did not want their communications observed
now had the advantage. They were able to either change their communication
method to a technique that was not being examined, or secure their services to
prevent unwarranted third parties from intercepting electronic mail or
telephone calls. Stephen Phipson, a director at Britain’s Office for Security
and Counter Terrorism, has seen this first hand as a result of the Snowden
leaks. "Our adversaries, the terrorists out there, now have full sight of
the sorts of tools and range of techniques that are being used by
government," he said. "I can tell you that data shows a substantial
reduction in the use of those methods of communication as a result of the
Snowden leaks." While there have been these negative Snowden effects,
there have also been domestic changes in the business community that are
helping to develop security efforts more rapidly.
According
to the documents contained in the reports about NSA surveillance activities,
large quantities of data were retrieved from cloud computing services. A survey
by NTT Communications Corp shows that 16% of Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) organizations are delaying or cancelling their contracts with
cloud service providers as a result of the Snowden leaks. This number alone
provides scope into the maturing concern for securing intellectual property,
customer data, and business communications in the business world. Much of the
concern may come after revealing that some of the largest cloud storage service
companies, such as Google and Apple, are permitting the United States
government to have access to their data.
While
the most obvious Snowden effect may be awareness to lucrative government
activities, there have been some major unintentional changes that have
undergone concurrently; including loss of trust in the United States
government, changes to communications methods by terrorist groups, and fewer
businesses engaging in cloud computing. According to Edward Snowden, “There can
be no faith in government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny -
they should be setting the example of transparency.” This opinion from one man
with high-ranking access control in NSA computer systems has absolutely changed
the world in more ways than one.
