

How Edward Snowden Escalated Cyber War - uptown
http://mag.newsweek.com/2013/11/1/edward-snowden-escalated-cyber-war.html

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kghose
This is a fairly sensationalist piece, but it does underline a supposition
that is very likely true. The Chinese government has hacked many many systems,
stealing information for military and commercial gain but with little
publicity. Snowden's leaks were VERY suspiciously timed, and done during a
period when he was in an interesting place. I find these combination of facts
and suppositions interesting but little investigated.

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JonSkeptic
At this point, I'm not sure the facts matter to any but a very small segment
of the American people. Given what we already know about Snowden, he was
either a Patriot or a Traitor.

From the evidence, I think it's obvious which. I have a sneaking suspicion
that most Americans also feel that it's obvious.

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GVIrish
There was a foreignpolicy.com article on HN recently that boils it down
succintly. Snowden's disclosures severely damaged the American advantage of
hypocrisy. By being able to publicly take the high ground on an issue, while
covertly doing the dirty stuff behind the scenes, we were able to enjoy the
advantages of both strategies.

With that strategy damaged, it will make it far more difficult to achieve our
diplomatic goals on multiple fronts.

Maybe Snowden was purposefully helping the Chinese, maybe he wasn't. Either
way, the NSA was doing a lot of stuff it should not have been doing. Had they
not been violating the constitution with their activities, there would've been
nothing to report. Not to mention the fact that if they had proper internal
access control, Snowden would not have been able to get away with as much
information as he did.

If Snowden were a Chinese spy, well, the NSA did a shit job of preventing
espionage. And who's to say there aren't foreign agents in the NSA right now,
stealing information?

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Zigurd
The author, Kurt Eichenwald, is an interesting case of rehabilitation. At one
point he <cough>accidentally</cough> discovered some teen's kiddie porn cam
and attempted to "save" the boy. If you are looking for a journalist who has
little to lose by picking a fight with Glenn Greenwald, he's your man.

