SXSW: Snowden Touts Encryption, Swipes at NSA (via slashdot)
In a Google Hangout with an auditorium full of South by Southwest attendees, government whistleblower (and former NSA employee) Edward Snowden suggested that encrypted communication should become more ubiquitous and easier to use for the majority of…
This post was republished using Repost. Please read it on Informed Comment directly: https://www.juancole.com/2014/03/snowden-undermining-cybersecurity.html
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The video:
More specifically, he said Hayden and Clapper undermined Nat’l security by prioritizing offense at expense of defense. @ggreenwald
I find that I like Mr. Snowdon more and more, as his revelations continue to emerge. You bet the USA is undermining its own cybersecurity!
There’s the gross collection and analysis of information (emails, phone calls, tweets, metadata, etc). There’s building trap doors into commercial security software. There’s weakening the very standards for encryption and providing deliberately-lamed algorithms and code to be used by commercial programs. And are these the guys deliberately poisoning online discourse by trolling the message boards?!?
All of this leaves Americans – and everyone else – who don’t work for the NSA more vulnerable than they realize, even those who are trying to maintain security and privacy. If the NSA can get in, so can others.
Maybe we should all just “cc” the NSA on all of our emails. It would help them reduce costs…