Misplaced Pages

#581418

158-479: Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American former NSA intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs. He became a naturalized Russian citizen in 2022. In 2013, while working as a government contractor, Snowden leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA). He

316-778: A rear admiral in the Coast Guard, became a senior official with the FBI and was at the Pentagon in 2001 during the September 11 attacks . Edward Snowden said that he had expected to work for the federal government, as had the rest of his family. His parents divorced in 2001, and his father remarried. In the early 1990s, while still in grade school, Snowden moved with his family to the area of Fort Meade, Maryland . Mononucleosis caused him to miss high school for almost nine months. Rather than returning to school, he claims to have passed

474-490: A system administrator , Snowden has said he was an infrastructure analyst, which meant that his job was to look for new ways to break into Internet and telephone traffic around the world. An anonymous source told Reuters that, while in Hawaii, Snowden may have persuaded 20–25 co-workers to give him their login credentials by telling them he needed them to do his job. The NSA sent a memo to Congress saying that Snowden had tricked

632-571: A transparent process for replacing the outdated Data Encryption Standard (DES) by an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Cybersecurity policy expert Susan Landau attributes the NSA's harmonious collaboration with industry and academia in the selection of the AES in 2000—and the Agency's support for the choice of a strong encryption algorithm designed by Europeans rather than by Americans—to Brian Snow , who

790-546: A "wake-up call" for the need to invest in the agency's infrastructure. In the 1990s the defensive arm of the NSA—the Information Assurance Directorate (IAD)—started working more openly; the first public technical talk by an NSA scientist at a major cryptography conference was J. Solinas' presentation on efficient Elliptic Curve Cryptography algorithms at Crypto 1997. The IAD's cooperative approach to academia and industry culminated in its support for

948-714: A 2010 article in The Washington Post , "every day, collection systems at the National Security Agency intercept and store 1.7  billion e-mails, phone calls and other types of communications. The NSA sorts a fraction of those into 70 separate databases." Because of its listening task, NSA/CSS has been heavily involved in cryptanalytic research, continuing the work of predecessor agencies which had broken many World War II codes and ciphers (see, for instance, Purple , Venona project , and JN-25 ). In 2004, NSA Central Security Service and

1106-456: A May 2014 interview to quantify the number of documents Snowden stole, retired NSA director Keith Alexander said there was no accurate way of counting what he took, but Snowden may have downloaded more than a million documents. The September 15, 2016 HPSCI report estimated the number of downloaded documents at 1.5 million. In a 2013 Associated Press interview, Glenn Greenwald stated: In order to take documents with him that proved that what he

1264-560: A May 2014 interview, Snowden told NBC News that after bringing his concerns about the legality of the NSA spying programs to officials, he was told to stay silent on the matter. He said that the NSA had copies of emails he sent to their Office of General Counsel, oversight, and compliance personnel broaching "concerns about the NSA's interpretations of its legal authorities. I had raised these complaints not just officially in writing through email, but to my supervisors, to my colleagues, in more than one office." In May 2014, U.S. officials released

1422-504: A San Francisco–based nonprofit organization that aims to protect journalists from hacking and government surveillance. He also has a job at an unnamed Russian IT company. In 2017, he married Lindsay Mills . On September 17, 2019, his memoir Permanent Record was published. On September 2, 2020, a U.S. federal court ruled in United States v. Moalin that one of the U.S. intelligence 's mass surveillance program exposed by Snowden

1580-400: A University of Liverpool computer security master's degree in 2013. The university said that Snowden registered for an online master's degree program in computer security in 2011 but was inactive as a student and had not completed the program. In his May 2014 interview with NBC News , Snowden accused the U.S. government of trying to use one position here or there in his career to distract from

1738-399: A big impact that I didn't turn over" and that "I have to screen everything before releasing it to journalists ... If I have time to go through this information, I would like to make it available to journalists in each country." Despite these measures, the improper redaction of a document by The New York Times resulted in the exposure of intelligence activity against al-Qaeda . In June 2014,

SECTION 10

#1732791060582

1896-702: A chapter of the book Whistleblowing Nation , published in March 2020, an adaptation of which also appeared on Lawfare Blog in March 2019. The unclassified portion of a September 15, 2016, report by the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), initiated by the chairman and Ranking Member in August 2014, and posted on the website of the Federation of American Scientists , concluded that Snowden

2054-719: A component of the United States Department of Homeland Security , the base, along with a host of defense contractors anchored by DRS Technologies , provide a host of local jobs and maintains an influx of Coast Guard and industry employees from all around the country. The USCG Air Station and the Aviation Technical Training Center (ATTC) in Elizabeth City were featured in numerous scenes of the 2006 Disney movie The Guardian , standing in for Kodiak, Alaska . Elizabeth City

2212-490: A fellow employee into sharing his personal private key to gain greater access to the NSA's computer system. Snowden disputed the memo, saying in January 2014, "I never stole any passwords, nor did I trick an army of co-workers." Booz Allen terminated Snowden's employment on June 10, 2013, the day after he went public with his story, and 3 weeks after he had left Hawaii on a leave of absence. The former colleague said Snowden

2370-471: A female householder with no husband present, and 38.6% were non-families. 32.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 27.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 3.01. In the city, the population was spread out, with 27.7% under the age of 19, 12.1% from 20 to 24, 23.1% from 25 to 44, 22.1% from 45 to 64, and 13.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age

2528-603: A file xkeyscorerules100.txt, sourced by German TV stations NDR and WDR , who claim to have excerpts from its source code) reveal that the NSA tracks users of privacy-enhancing software tools, including Tor ; an anonymous email service provided by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and readers of the Linux Journal . Linus Torvalds ,

2686-549: A financial center of trade and commercially successful in the early 19th century. In 1826, the federal government purchased 600 stocks in the canal and, in 1829, additional funds for improvements were raised by the Norfolk lottery. With these funds, the Dismal Swamp Canal was widened and deepened, allowing for larger boats to ship their goods to and from the city. Further bolstering Elizabeth City's financial success,

2844-541: A major effort to secure tactical communications among U.S. forces during the war with mixed success. The NESTOR family of compatible secure voice systems it developed was widely deployed during the Vietnam War , with about 30,000 NESTOR sets produced. However, a variety of technical and operational problems limited their use, allowing the North Vietnamese to exploit and intercept U.S. communications. In

3002-564: A major thoroughfare, is named. During the same era, nine-ball legend Luther Lassiter was born in Elizabeth City, and developed much of his skill at pool in the City Billiards pool hall. Elizabeth City was the 1929 birthplace of the American Moth Boat , a class of recreational sailboats invented by Dr. Joel Van Sant. The city hosts a Moth Boat Regatta annually in late February. The Moth Boat features prominently on

3160-482: A matter of political controversy on several occasions, including its spying on anti–Vietnam War leaders and the agency's participation in economic espionage . In 2013, the NSA had many of its secret surveillance programs revealed to the public by Edward Snowden , a former NSA contractor. According to the leaked documents, the NSA intercepts and stores the communications of over a billion people worldwide, including United States citizens. The documents also revealed that

3318-592: A memorial at the National Cryptologic Museum in Fort Meade, Maryland. The memorial is a, "tribute to the pioneers and heroes who have made significant and long-lasting contributions to American cryptology". NSA employees must be retired for more than fifteen years to qualify for the memorial. NSA's infrastructure deteriorated in the 1990s as defense budget cuts resulted in maintenance deferrals. On January 24, 2000, NSA headquarters suffered

SECTION 20

#1732791060582

3476-514: A population of 64,094 as of 2010 . It is part of the larger Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC Combined Statistical Area . The city is the economic center of the region, as well as home to many historic sites and cultural traditions. Marketed as the "Harbor of Hospitality", Elizabeth City has had a long history of shipping due to its location at a narrowed bend of the Pasquotank River . Founded in 1794, Elizabeth City prospered early on from

3634-708: A premier hub of the aviation industry , the airpark hopes to attract major tenants as well as the Aviation Science programs of Elizabeth City State University and related programs by the College of the Albemarle . Elizabeth City is home to the Museum of the Albemarle , the northeastern regional branch of the North Carolina Museum of History . The museum occupies a prominent location adjacent to

3792-915: A repeater transmitter of UNC-TV licensed to broadcast from Edenton, North Carolina , and WSKY (independent) transmitting from Camden . The only station based in Elizabeth City is W18BB-D , broadcasting from a tower on the Elizabeth City State University campus. All public education is overseen by the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank County School Board of Education under the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public School system (ECPPS) which operates seven elementary schools, two middle schools, two high schools, one Early College program, one alternative high school and one public charter STEM school Elizabeth City

3950-477: A result of the boomerang routing of Canadian Internet service providers . A document included in NSA files released with Glenn Greenwald 's book No Place to Hide details how the agency's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) and other NSA units gain access to hardware. They intercept routers , servers , and other network hardware being shipped to organizations targeted for surveillance and install covert implant firmware onto them before they are delivered. This

4108-437: A secret court order requiring Verizon to hand the NSA millions of Americans' phone records daily, as well as the surveillance of phone and Internet records of French citizens, with specific targets of French people either "suspected of association with terrorist activities" or in "the worlds of business, politics or French state administration." XKeyscore , an analytical tool that allows for collection of "almost anything done on

4266-457: A secret filing system that was destroyed in 1974. Following the resignation of President Richard Nixon , there were several investigations into suspected misuse of FBI, CIA and NSA facilities. Senator Frank Church uncovered previously unknown activity, such as a CIA plot (ordered by the administration of President John F. Kennedy ) to assassinate Fidel Castro . The investigation also uncovered NSA's wiretaps on targeted U.S. citizens. After

4424-532: A security guard at the University of Maryland 's Center for Advanced Study of Language, a research center sponsored by the National Security Agency (NSA). According to the University, this is not a classified facility, though it is heavily guarded. In June 2014, Snowden told Wired that his job as a security guard required a high-level security clearance , for which he passed a polygraph exam and underwent

4582-433: A sexually compromising situation. But they're extremely attractive. So what do they do? They turn around in their chair and they show a co-worker ... and sooner or later this person's whole life has been seen by all of these other people. Snowden observed that this behavior happened routinely every two months but was never reported, being considered one of the " fringe benefits " of the work. Snowden has described himself as

4740-509: A simply detailed six-story shaft; and a one-story capital, which displays an abundance of decoration. Today it serves as an elderly apartment complex. Elizabeth City has been the birthplace of a few government officials in its history. Judge John Warren Davis , a justice of the Federal Court of Appeals, was born in Elizabeth City, as was John C. B. Ehringhaus , governor of North Carolina from 1933 to 1937 and for whom Ehringhaus Street,

4898-461: A single email that Snowden had written in April 2013 inquiring about legal authorities but said that they had found no other evidence that Snowden had expressed his concerns to someone in an oversight position. In June 2014, the NSA said it had not been able to find any records of Snowden raising internal complaints about the agency's operations. That same month, Snowden explained that he had not produced

Edward Snowden - Misplaced Pages Continue

5056-568: A stringent background investigation. After attending a 2006 job-fair focused on intelligence agencies, Snowden accepted an offer for a position at the CIA. The Agency assigned him to the global communications division at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia . In May 2006, Snowden wrote in Ars Technica that he had no trouble getting work because he was a "computer wizard". Snowden was sent to

5214-403: A total network outage for three days caused by an overloaded network. Incoming traffic was successfully stored on agency servers, but it could not be directed and processed. The agency carried out emergency repairs for $ 3  million to get the system running again. (Some incoming traffic was also directed instead to Britain's GCHQ for the time being.) Director Michael Hayden called the outage

5372-492: A total of 3.5 inches (89 mm) of snow annually. As of the 2020 United States census , there were 18,631 people, 6,526 households, and 3,839 families residing in the city. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, there were 18,683 people, 7,487 households, and 4,689 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,607.0 inhabitants per square mile (620.5/km ). There were 8,167 housing units at an average density of 702.24 per square mile (271.14/km ). The racial makeup of

5530-444: A whistleblower, a description used by many sources, including CNBC , The New Yorker , Reuters, and The Guardian , among others. The term has both informal and legal meanings. Snowden said that he had told multiple employees and two supervisors about his concerns, but the NSA disputes his claim. Snowden elaborated in January 2014, saying "[I] made tremendous efforts to report these programs to co-workers, supervisors, and anyone with

5688-486: A year as system administrator and pre-sales technical engineer on Dell's CIA account. In that capacity, he was consulted by the chiefs of the CIA's technical branches, including the agency's chief information officer and its chief technology officer . U.S. officials and other sources familiar with the investigation said Snowden began downloading documents describing the government's electronic spying programs while working for Dell in April 2012. Investigators estimated that of

5846-571: Is a city in Pasquotank county, United States. As of the 2020 census , it had a population of 18,629. Elizabeth City is the county seat and most populous city of Pasquotank County. It is the cultural, economic and educational hub of the sixteen-county Historic Albemarle region of northeastern North Carolina. Elizabeth City is the center of the Elizabeth City Micropolitan Statistical Area , with

6004-581: Is also alleged to have been behind such attack software as Stuxnet , which severely damaged Iran's nuclear program . The NSA, alongside the CIA, maintains a physical presence in many countries across the globe; the CIA/NSA joint Special Collection Service (a highly classified intelligence team) inserts eavesdropping devices in high-value targets (such as presidential palaces or embassies). SCS collection tactics allegedly encompass "close surveillance, burglary, wiretapping, [and] breaking and entering". Unlike

6162-557: Is also home to one of the United States' few airship factories. Many of the nation's commercial blimps are made and serviced here. The current airship facilities evolved from what had previously been Naval Air Station Weeksville , operational from 1941 to 1957. NAS Weeksville's LTA craft played a vital role in German U-boat spotting during World War II, helping to minimize losses to East Coast shipping . NAS Weeksville

6320-937: Is believed by Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian to be the model for the comprehensive worldwide mass archiving of communications which NSA is engaged in as of 2013. A dedicated unit of the NSA locates targets for the CIA for extrajudicial assassination in the Middle East. The NSA has also spied extensively on the European Union, the United Nations, and numerous governments including allies and trading partners in Europe, South America, and Asia. In June 2015, WikiLeaks published documents showing that NSA spied on French companies. WikiLeaks also published documents showing that NSA spied on federal German ministries since

6478-417: Is home to one private and two public institutions of higher education. Elizabeth City State University , the smallest constituent member of the 16-campus University of North Carolina System, is a historically African-American institution, enrolling 2,930 students as of fall 2011 on a compact 200-acre (0.81 km ) campus along the city's southern edge. Founded as a normal school in 1891, it now serves

Edward Snowden - Misplaced Pages Continue

6636-515: Is land and 0.62 square miles (1.6 km ), or 5.09%, is water. Located in the " Inner Banks " region of North Carolina, Elizabeth City is largely flat and marshy with an elevation of only 12 feet (3.7 m) above sea level. The city's semi-coastal geography has played an important role in its history—Elizabeth City once hosted thriving oyster and timber industries. Elizabeth City has a humid subtropical climate , experiencing only modest seasonal variation in temperature and precipitation. Because it

6794-418: Is one of the largest United States Coast Guard Air Stations in the nation at over 800 acres, and is home to six commands - Air Station Elizabeth City, Aviation Logistics Center, Aviation Technical Training Center, Base Elizabeth City, C-27J Asset Project Office (APO), and Small Boat Station Elizabeth City - as well as the off-base National Strike Force Coordination Center located in northern Elizabeth City. As

6952-651: Is relatively close to the Albemarle Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, the temperature variations in the area are somewhat softened. On average, Elizabeth City has its highest temperature and accumulation of precipitation in July. Elizabeth City commonly experiences thunderstorms during the summer months and has endured many tropical storms and hurricanes due to its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. This city experiences very little snowfall, however, receiving on average

7110-488: Is sponsored by River City Community Development Corporation and celebrates the freeing of African Slaves in America. It has evolved into a multi-racial, multi-cultural celebration of American Freedom. The festival features vendors and informational booths, speakers, entertainment, and good food. The Daily Advance has served as Elizabeth City's sole daily newspaper since its founding by Herbert Peele in 1911. In mid-2009,

7268-533: The CIA . Snowden says he gradually became disillusioned with the programs with which he was involved, and that he tried to raise his ethical concerns through internal channels but was ignored. On May 20, 2013, Snowden flew to Hong Kong after taking medical leave from his job at an NSA facility in Hawaii , and in early June he revealed thousands of classified NSA documents to journalists Glenn Greenwald , Laura Poitras , Barton Gellman , and Ewen MacAskill . Snowden came to international attention after stories based on

7426-698: The Department of State , the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In December 1951, President Harry S. Truman ordered a panel to investigate how AFSA had failed to achieve its goals. The results of the investigation led to improvements and its redesignation as the National Security Agency. The National Security Council issued a memorandum of October 24, 1952, that revised National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) 9 . On

7584-563: The Dismal Swamp Canal as a mercantile city. Later it developed industry and other commercial focus. While Elizabeth City still retains extensive waterfront property, it is linked to neighboring counties and cities by contemporary highways and bridges to support other transportation. It hosts one of the largest United States Coast Guard bases in the nation. Located at the narrows of the Pasquotank River, colonists used

7742-715: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court when within U.S. borders. Alleged Echelon-related activities, including its use for motives other than national security, including political and industrial espionage , received criticism from countries outside the UKUSA alliance. The NSA was also involved in planning to blackmail people with " SEXINT ", intelligence gained about a potential target's sexual activity and preferences. Those targeted had not committed any apparent crime nor were they charged with one. To support its facial recognition program,

7900-604: The GED test. He took classes at Anne Arundel Community College . Although Snowden had no undergraduate college degree, he worked online toward a master's degree at the University of Liverpool , England , in 2011. He was interested in Japanese popular culture , had studied the Japanese language , and worked for an anime company that had a resident office in the U.S. He also said he had a basic understanding of Mandarin Chinese and

8058-753: The National Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agreed to expand the NSA Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education Program. As part of the National Security Presidential Directive 54/Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23 (NSPD 54), signed on January 8, 2008, by President Bush, the NSA became the lead agency to monitor and protect all of

SECTION 50

#1732791060582

8216-593: The National Register of Historic Places . They are protected to encourage heritage tourism that stresses the city's unique qualities. Elizabeth City is located alongside the Pasquotank River , which connects to Albemarle Sound . Directly across the river lies Camden County . According to the United States Census Bureau , Elizabeth City has a total area of 12.2 square miles (31.7 km ), of which 11.6 square miles (30.1 km )

8374-643: The U.S. Army cryptographic section of military intelligence known as MI-8, the U.S. government created the Cipher Bureau, also known as Black Chamber , in 1919. The Black Chamber was the United States' first peacetime cryptanalytic organization. Jointly funded by the Army and the State Department, the Cipher Bureau was disguised as a New York City commercial code company; it produced and sold such codes for business use. Its true mission, however,

8532-651: The UN and other international organizations , Snowden received a diplomatic passport and a four-bedroom apartment near Lake Geneva . According to Greenwald, while there Snowden said he was "considered the top technical and cybersecurity expert" in that country and "was hand-picked by the CIA to support the president at the 2008 NATO summit in Romania ". A 2016 report from the US House of Representatives Select Committee on Intelligence said that Snowden's official position at CIA

8690-639: The US Court of Appeals . The court also added that the US intelligence leaders, who publicly defended it, were not telling the truth. NSA's eavesdropping mission includes radio broadcasting, both from various organizations and individuals, the Internet, telephone calls, and other intercepted forms of communication. Its secure communications mission includes military, diplomatic, and all other sensitive, confidential, or secret government communications. According to

8848-507: The United States Intelligence Community "if they think you are the single point of failure that could stop this disclosure and make them the sole owner of this information." In May 2013, Snowden was permitted temporary leave from his position at the NSA in Hawaii, on the pretext of receiving treatment for his epilepsy . In mid-May, Snowden gave an electronic interview to Poitras and Jacob Appelbaum which

9006-651: The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 (5 USC 2303(b)(8)-(9); Pub. Law 101-12). However, Snowden's potential status as a whistleblower under the 1989 Act is not directly addressed in the criminal complaint against him in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (see below) (Case No. 1:13 CR 265 (0MH)). These and similar and related issues are discussed in an essay by David Pozen, in

9164-487: The poverty line , including 42.5% of those under age 18 and 12.1% of those age 65 or over. Elizabeth City serves as the county seat of Pasquotank County. The city has a council–manager style of government. The city council is composed of eight council members and the city manager, elected by the council members. The city manager serves a largely executive function, overseeing the city's administrative departments, appointing department heads and city employees, and informing

9322-457: The "widespread surveillance" and for helping to spark a "huge public debate about the extent of the government's spying". The Guardian ' s chief editor, Alan Rusbridger , credited Snowden for having performed a public service. The ongoing publication of leaked documents has revealed previously unknown details of a global surveillance apparatus run by the NSA in close cooperation with three of its four Five Eyes partners: Australia's ASD ,

9480-486: The 1990s. Even Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel 's cellphones and phones of her predecessors had been intercepted. Edward Snowden revealed in June 2013 that between February 8 and March 8, 2013, the NSA collected about 124.8  billion telephone data items and 97.1  billion computer data items throughout the world, as was displayed in charts from an internal NSA tool codenamed Boundless Informant . Initially, it

9638-556: The 50,000 to 200,000 documents Snowden gave to Greenwald and Poitras, most were copied by Snowden while working at Dell. In March 2012, Dell reassigned Snowden to Hawaii as lead technologist for the NSA's information-sharing office. On March 15, 2013—three days after what he later called his "breaking point" of "seeing the Director of National Intelligence , James Clapper , directly lie under oath to Congress"—Snowden quit his job at Dell. Although he has said his career high annual salary

SECTION 60

#1732791060582

9796-604: The Black Chamber access to cable traffic of foreign embassies and consulates. Soon, these companies publicly discontinued their collaboration. Despite the Chamber's initial successes, it was shut down in 1929 by U.S. Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson , who defended his decision by stating, "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail." During World War II , the Signal Intelligence Service (SIS)

9954-495: The CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), both of which specialize primarily in foreign human espionage , the NSA does not publicly conduct human intelligence gathering . The NSA is entrusted with assisting with and coordinating, SIGINT elements for other government organizations—which are prevented by Executive Order from engaging in such activities on their own. As part of these responsibilities,

10112-468: The CIA's secret school for technology specialists, where he lived in a hotel for six months while studying and training full-time. In March 2007, the CIA stationed Snowden with diplomatic cover in Geneva , Switzerland , where he was responsible for maintaining computer-network security. Assigned to the U.S. Permanent Mission to the United Nations , a diplomatic mission representing U.S. interests before

10270-689: The Church Committee hearings, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 was passed. This was designed to limit the practice of mass surveillance in the United States . In 1986, the NSA intercepted the communications of the Libyan government during the immediate aftermath of the Berlin discotheque bombing . The White House asserted that the NSA interception had provided "irrefutable" evidence that Libya

10428-529: The Daily Advance was bought by Cooke Communications. The Independent was a weekly newspaper serving Elizabeth City and the surrounding Albemarle area from 1908 to 1939. The Independent was published by William Oscar "W.O." Saunders (1884-1940). Elizabeth City is part of the Hampton Roads television market. The majority of the stations received in the area come from southeastern Virginia , including WTKR (CBS), WAVY (NBC), WVEC (ABC), WVBT (FOX), and WHRO (PBS). The only exceptions are WUND (PBS),

10586-472: The London Sunday Times reported that Russian and Chinese intelligence services had decrypted more than 1 million classified files in the Snowden cache, forcing the UK's MI6 intelligence agency to move agents out of live operations in hostile countries. Sir David Omand , a former director of the UK's GCHQ intelligence gathering agency, described it as a huge strategic setback that was harming Britain, America, and their NATO allies. The Sunday Times said it

10744-544: The Lowery-Chesson Building. Once home to the Chesson Department Store on the ground floor and a turn-of-the-century opera house on the second and third floors, the once-dilapidated building undertook a $ 3.4 million renovation, and "The Center" became AOA's permanent home in 2005. The three-story building houses three art galleries, the state-of-the-art McGuire Theater for the performing arts, and multiple conference and meeting rooms. The Center has been an economic driver for downtown Elizabeth City since its opening. Among these are

10902-495: The NSA by President Harry S. Truman in 1952. Between then and the end of the Cold War, it became the largest of the U.S. intelligence organizations in terms of personnel and budget, but information available as of 2013 indicates that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) pulled ahead in this regard, with a budget of $ 14.7 billion. The NSA currently conducts worldwide mass data collection and has been known to physically bug electronic systems as one method to this end. The NSA

11060-484: The NSA is intercepting "millions of images per day". The Real Time Regional Gateway is a data collection program introduced in 2005 in Iraq by the NSA during the Iraq War that consisted of gathering all electronic communication, storing it, then searching and otherwise analyzing it. It was effective in providing information about Iraqi insurgents who had eluded less comprehensive techniques. This "collect it all" strategy introduced by NSA director, Keith B. Alexander ,

11218-447: The NSA that allowed the export of a version that supported stronger keys with 64 bits, but 24 of the bits were encrypted with a special key and included in the message to provide a "workload reduction factor" for the NSA. This strengthened the protection for users of Notes outside the US against private-sector industrial espionage , but not against spying by the US government. While it is assumed that foreign transmissions terminating in

11376-498: The NSA tracks hundreds of millions of people's movements using cell phones metadata . Internationally, research has pointed to the NSA's ability to surveil the domestic Internet traffic of foreign countries through " boomerang routing ". The origins of the National Security Agency can be traced back to April 28, 1917, three weeks after the U.S. Congress declared war on Germany in World War I . A code and cipher decryption unit

11534-442: The NSA was a trusted partner with academia and industry in the development of cryptographic standards started to come to an end when, as part of the change in the NSA in the post-September 11 era, Snow was replaced as Technical Director, Jacobs retired, and IAD could no longer effectively oppose proposed actions by the offensive arm of the NSA. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks , the NSA created new IT systems to deal with

11692-531: The NSA was not known to the public at that time. Due to its ultra-secrecy, the U.S. intelligence community referred to the NSA as "No Such Agency". In the 1960s, the NSA played a key role in expanding U.S. commitment to the Vietnam War by providing evidence of a North Vietnamese attack on the American destroyer USS  Maddox during the Gulf of Tonkin incident . A secret operation, code-named " MINARET ",

11850-567: The NSA's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) group implant catalog, after implanting Cottonmouth, the NSA can establish a network bridge "that allows the NSA to load exploit software onto modified computers as well as allowing the NSA to relay commands and data between hardware and software implants." NSA's mission, as outlined in Executive Order 12333 in 1981, is to collect information that constitutes "foreign intelligence or counterintelligence" while not "acquiring information concerning

12008-530: The NSA's recently installed director, U.S. Navy Admiral Michael S. Rogers , said that while some terrorist groups had altered their communications to avoid surveillance techniques revealed by Snowden, the damage done was not significant enough to conclude that "the sky is falling." Nevertheless, in February 2015, Rogers said that Snowden's disclosures had a material impact on the NSA's detection and evaluation of terrorist activities worldwide. On June 14, 2015,

12166-656: The NSA. In March 2014, Army General Martin Dempsey , Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , told the House Armed Services Committee , "The vast majority of the documents that Snowden ... exfiltrated from our highest levels of security ... had nothing to do with exposing government oversight of domestic activities. The vast majority of those were related to our military capabilities, operations, tactics, techniques, and procedures." When asked in

12324-539: The U.S. (such as a non-U.S. citizen accessing a U.S. website) subject non-U.S. citizens to NSA surveillance, recent research into boomerang routing has raised new concerns about the NSA's ability to surveil the domestic Internet traffic of foreign countries. Boomerang routing occurs when an Internet transmission that originates and terminates in a single country transits another. Research at the University of Toronto has suggested that approximately 25% of Canadian domestic traffic may be subject to NSA surveillance activities as

12482-475: The UK's GCHQ , and Canada's CSEC . On June 5, 2013, media reports documenting the existence and functions of classified surveillance programs and their scope began and continued throughout the entire year. The first program to be revealed was PRISM, which allows for direct access to data on the servers of Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple. Barton Gellman of The Washington Post

12640-597: The US customs house was relocated in 1827 from Camden County to Elizabeth City. From 1829 to 1832, Elizabeth City's tolls tripled for commercial shipping. During the American Civil War , the Confederate States had a small fleet stationed at Elizabeth City. After the Battle of Roanoke Island , Union forces sent a fleet to take the city. A small skirmish resulted in a Union victory. Elizabeth City

12798-598: The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the International Organization for Standardization (aka ISO). This memo appears to give credence to previous speculation by cryptographers at Microsoft Research . Edward Snowden claims that the NSA often bypasses encryption altogether by lifting information before it is encrypted or after it is decrypted. XKeyscore rules (as specified in

12956-455: The United States gathered information on militants. As a result, the group's top leaders used couriers or encrypted channels to avoid being tracked or monitored by Western analysts. According to Snowden, he did not indiscriminately turn over documents to journalists, stating that "I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest. There are all sorts of documents that would have made

13114-511: The ability to monitor a large proportion of the world's transmitted civilian telephone, fax, and data traffic. During the early 1970s, the first of what became more than eight large satellite communications dishes were installed at Menwith Hill. Investigative journalist Duncan Campbell reported in 1988 on the " ECHELON " surveillance program, an extension of the UKUSA Agreement on global signals intelligence SIGINT , and detailed how

13272-526: The aftermath of the Watergate scandal , a congressional hearing in 1975 led by Senator Frank Church revealed that the NSA, in collaboration with Britain's SIGINT intelligence agency, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), had routinely intercepted the international communications of prominent anti-Vietnam war leaders such as Jane Fonda and Dr. Benjamin Spock . The NSA tracked these individuals in

13430-803: The agency has a co-located organization called the Central Security Service (CSS), which facilitates cooperation between the NSA and other U.S. defense cryptanalysis components. To further ensure streamlined communication between the signals intelligence community divisions, the NSA Director simultaneously serves as the Commander of the United States Cyber Command and as Chief of the Central Security Service. The NSA's actions have been

13588-436: The area that developed as Elizabeth City as a trading site. As early as the mid 18th century, they established inspection stations and ferries. With the addition of minor roads, a schoolhouse, and soon a church, a small community developed at these narrows. In 1793, businessmen supported construction of the Dismal Swamp Canal; it was integral to the success of Elizabeth City's commerce. The North Carolina Assembly incorporated

13746-576: The canceled passport, and he was restricted to the airport terminal for over one month. Russia later granted Snowden the right of asylum with an initial visa for residence for one year, which was repeatedly extended. In October 2020, he was granted permanent residency in Russia. In September 2022, Snowden was granted Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin . A subject of controversy, Snowden has been variously praised and condemned for his leaks. Snowden has defended his actions as an effort "to inform

13904-403: The city was 54.00% African American , 39.50% White , 0.40% Native American , 1.20% Asian , 0.10% Pacific Islander , 0.62% from other races , and 2.30% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.00% of the population. There were 6,577 households, out of which 32.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.0% were married couples living together, 22.6% had

14062-420: The city's five historic districts have led to increasing economic stability. The Elizabeth City Historic District , Elizabeth City State Teachers College Historic District , Elizabeth City Water Plant , Episcopal Cemetery , Norfolk Southern Passenger Station , Northside Historic District , Old Brick House , Riverside Historic District , and Shepard Street-South Road Street Historic District are listed on

14220-752: The city's seal. Elizabeth City hosts the North Carolina Potato Festival , an annual celebration of the potato , one of the region's most important crops. The festival has steadily become one of the most popular draws in northeastern North Carolina, and is usually held in mid-May in downtown Elizabeth City. This annual Christmastime fair is sponsored by the Albemarle Craftsman's Guild and features artisans, many of whom wear period costumes, selling and demonstrating traditional crafts. Crafts include quilting and fiber arts, pottery, jewelry and woodwork. This annual celebration

14378-432: The city's waterfront and contains many permanent and revolving exhibits on the history and culture of the historic Albemarle region. The history of European colonization dates back to 1668, making the Albemarle the country's oldest colonial inhabited area, second only to Jamestown and adjacent settlements in neighboring Virginia. Downtown Elizabeth City is also home to Arts of the Albemarle, a regional arts council located in

14536-441: The codename " Verax ". He asked not to be quoted at length for fear of identification by stylometry . According to Gellman, before their first meeting in person, Snowden wrote, "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions and that the return of this information to the public marks my end." Snowden also told Gellman that until the articles were published, the journalists working with him would also be at mortal risk from

14694-411: The communiqués in question because of the ongoing nature of the dispute, disclosing for the first time that "I am working with the NSA in regard to these records and we're going back and forth, so I don't want to reveal everything that will come out." Self-description as a whistleblower and attribution as such in news reports does not determine whether he qualifies as a whistleblower within the meaning of

14852-517: The domestic activities of United States persons ". NSA has declared that it relies on the FBI to collect information on foreign intelligence activities within the borders of the United States while confining its activities within the United States to the embassies and missions of foreign nations. The appearance of a 'Domestic Surveillance Directorate' of the NSA was soon exposed as a hoax in 2013. Elizabeth City, North Carolina Elizabeth City

15010-538: The eavesdropping operations worked. On November 3, 1999, the BBC reported that they had confirmation from the Australian Government of the existence of a powerful "global spying network" code-named Echelon, that could "eavesdrop on every single phone call, fax or e-mail, anywhere on the planet" with Britain and the United States as the chief protagonists. They confirmed that Menwith Hill was "linked directly to

15168-527: The equivalent agencies in the United Kingdom ( Government Communications Headquarters ), Canada ( Communications Security Establishment ), Australia ( Australian Signals Directorate ), and New Zealand ( Government Communications Security Bureau ), otherwise known as the UKUSA group, was reported to be in command of the operation of the so-called ECHELON system. Its capabilities were suspected to include

15326-524: The federal government's computer networks from cyber-terrorism . A part of the NSA's mission is to serve as a combat support agency for the Department of Defense. Operations by the National Security Agency can be divided into three types: "Echelon" was created in the incubator of the Cold War . Today it is a legacy system , and several NSA stations are closing. NSA/CSS, in combination with

15484-504: The flood of information from new technologies like the Internet and cell phones. ThinThread contained advanced data mining capabilities. It also had a "privacy mechanism"; surveillance was stored encrypted; decryption required a warrant. The research done under this program may have contributed to the technology used in later systems. ThinThread was canceled when Michael Hayden chose Trailblazer , which did not include ThinThread's privacy system. Trailblazer Project ramped up in 2002 and

15642-481: The founder of Linux kernel , joked during a LinuxCon keynote on September 18, 2013, that the NSA, who is the founder of SELinux , wanted a backdoor in the kernel. However, later, Linus' father, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), revealed that the NSA actually did this. When my oldest son was asked the same question: "Has he been approached by the NSA about backdoors?" he said "No", but at

15800-635: The headquarters of the US National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade in Maryland". NSA's United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18) strictly prohibited the interception or collection of information about "... U.S. persons , entities, corporations or organizations...." without explicit written legal permission from the United States Attorney General when the subject is located abroad, or

15958-633: The initial articles based on the leaked documents were published, beginning with The Guardian on June 5. Greenwald later said Snowden disclosed 9,000 to 10,000 documents. Within months, documents had been obtained and published by media outlets worldwide, most notably The Guardian (Britain), Der Spiegel (Germany), The Washington Post and The New York Times (U.S.), O Globo (Brazil), Le Monde (France), and similar outlets in Sweden , Canada , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Spain , and Australia . In 2014, NBC broke its first story based on

16116-471: The internet," was described by The Guardian as a program that shed light on one of Snowden's most controversial statements: "I, sitting at my desk [could] wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email." National Security Agency Originating as a unit to decipher coded communications in World War II , it was officially formed as

16274-420: The leaked documents. In February 2014, for reporting based on Snowden's leaks, journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Barton Gellman and The Guardian′ s Ewen MacAskill were honored as co-recipients of the 2013 George Polk Award , which they dedicated to Snowden. The NSA reporting by these journalists also earned The Guardian and The Washington Post the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for exposing

16432-575: The material appeared in The Guardian , The Washington Post , and other publications. On June 21, 2013, the United States Department of Justice unsealed charges against Snowden of two counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and theft of government property, following which the Department of State revoked his passport . Two days later, he flew into Moscow 's Sheremetyevo International Airport , where Russian authorities observed

16590-400: The measures that the source asked him to take to secure their communications, such as encrypting email, too annoying to employ. Snowden then contacted documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras in January 2013. According to Poitras, Snowden chose to contact her after seeing her New York Times article about NSA whistleblower William Binney . What originally attracted Snowden to Greenwald and Poitras

16748-555: The month; the meetings are rebroadcast on a public service channel. Elizabeth City has an office for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina , headed by Terrence W. Boyle as the resident judge. This court presides over cases in the northern region of this district. Elizabeth City also occupies North Carolina's 3rd congressional district , served by U.S. Representative Greg Murphy . Established in 1940 and located southeast of Elizabeth City's corporate limits, Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City

16906-520: The most hostile and dangerous environments around the world. So when they say I'm a low-level systems administrator, that I don't know what I'm talking about, I'd say it's somewhat misleading." In a June interview with Globo TV , Snowden reiterated that he "was actually functioning at a very senior level." In a July interview with The Guardian , Snowden explained that, during his NSA career, "I began to move from merely overseeing these systems to actively directing their use. Many people don't understand that I

17064-493: The most striking architectural feature of the greater Albemarle region, the Virginia Dare Hotel, and Arcade, which has dominated the skyline of Elizabeth City since its completion in 1927. Designed by William Lee Stoddart of New York City , one of the nation's leading hotel architects, the nine-story building was billed as the Albemarle's first “skyscraper” when it opened in 1927. It remains the tallest building in

17222-617: The most subchasers for the war effort (30 out of 438 total nationally), and set the record construction time for the SC-class, with SC-740 laid down in only thirty days. As of June 2013, the Elizabeth City Shipyard is still in operation. For two years, 1950 and 1951, Elizabeth City was home to a professional minor league baseball team. The Elizabeth City Albemarles played in the Class D level Virginia League . Previously,

17380-532: The order of 1.7 million, a number that originally came from Department of Defense talking points. In July 2014, The Washington Post reported on a cache previously provided by Snowden from domestic NSA operations consisting of "roughly 160,000 intercepted e-mail and instant-message conversations, some of them hundreds of pages long, and 7,900 documents taken from more than 11,000 online accounts." A DIA report declassified in June 2015 said that Snowden took 900,000 Department of Defense files, more than he downloaded from

17538-538: The proper clearance who would listen. The reactions of those I told about the scale of the constitutional violations ranged from deeply concerned to appalled, but no one was willing to risk their jobs, families, and possibly even freedom to go to [ sic ] through what [Thomas Andrews] Drake did." In March 2014, during testimony to the European Parliament, Snowden wrote that before revealing classified information he had reported "clearly problematic programs" to ten officials, who he said did nothing in response. In

17696-523: The public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them". His disclosures have fueled debates over mass surveillance , government secrecy , and the balance between national security and information privacy , something that he has said he intended to do in retrospective interviews. In early 2016, Snowden became the president of the Freedom of the Press Foundation ,

17854-421: The region. The hotel contained 100 rooms and a heated garage (now the rear parking lot) with an interior filling station and lubricating stand. It remained the premier hotel and center of Elizabeth City's social activities for over 40 years. Architecturally, its restrained Colonial Revival finish follows the typical division of such tall buildings into the three parts of a classical pillar: a sturdy two-story base;

18012-542: The report for, in his opinion, presuming that the public became concerned about privacy only after Snowden's disclosures. Snowden's decision to leak NSA documents developed gradually following his March 2007 posting as a technician to the Geneva CIA station. Snowden later made contact with Glenn Greenwald, a journalist working at The Guardian . He contacted Greenwald anonymously as "Cincinnatus" and said he had sensitive documents that he would like to share. Greenwald found

18170-431: The rest of the council of relevant municipal conditions. Currently, the city manager is Rich Olsen. The eight council members, on the other hand, act in a legislative regard, adopting city policies, holding the city manager responsible, and choosing a mayor pro-tempore from its council members. This council is elected every two years by each of the four wards composing the city electing two members. The mayor, elected by

18328-513: The same day, Truman issued a second memorandum that called for the establishment of the NSA. The actual establishment of the NSA was done by a November 4 memo by Robert A. Lovett , the Secretary of Defense , changing the name of the AFSA to the NSA, and making the new agency responsible for all communications intelligence. Since President Truman's memo was a classified document, the existence of

18486-556: The same time he nodded. Then he was sort of in the legal free. He had given the right answer, everybody understood that the NSA had approached him. IBM Notes was the first widely adopted software product to use public key cryptography for client-server and server–server authentication and encryption of data. Until US laws regulating encryption were changed in 2000, IBM and Lotus were prohibited from exporting versions of Notes that supported symmetric encryption keys that were longer than 40 bits. In 1997, Lotus negotiated an agreement with

18644-483: The totality of his experience, downplaying him as a "low-level analyst." In his words, he was "trained as a spy in the traditional sense of the word in that I lived and worked undercover overseas—pretending to work in a job that I'm not—and even being assigned a name that was not mine." He said he'd worked for the NSA undercover overseas, and for the DIA had developed sources and methods to keep information and people secure "in

18802-418: The town as "Redding", renaming it in 1794 as "Elizabethtown". Due to resulting confusion with another town of the same name, in 1801, the city was renamed as "Elizabeth City". The name "Elizabeth" has been attributed to Elizabeth "Betsy" Tooley, a local tavern proprietress who donated much of the land for the new town. With improvements to the Dismal Swamp Canal, commerce flourished and Elizabeth City became

18960-432: The town had fielded a team for several seasons in the semipro Albemarle League. The conclusion of the war led to a levelled economy. Industry restructuring here and in other areas changed the economy. Since the late 20th century, the service, government, and agriculture sectors have become dominant in the current economy. Starting in the late 1990s, revival efforts in tourism and civic revitalization centered on downtown and

19118-496: The traffic. The Portsmouth and Roanoke Railroad , completed in the 1830s, allowed for goods to be transported from the Roanoke River directly to Weldon . The Albemarle–Chesapeake Canal, completed in 1859, created a deeper channel for merchants shipping goods from the eastern Albemarle Sound to Norfolk. Such new opportunities established Elizabeth City as a thriving deep-water port and powerful regional economic center. It

19276-532: The unit consisted of Yardley and two civilian clerks. It absorbed the Navy's cryptanalysis functions in July 1918. World War I ended on November 11, 1918 , and the army cryptographic section of Military Intelligence (MI-8) moved to New York City on May 20, 1919, where it continued intelligence activities as the Code Compilation Company under the direction of Yardley. After the disbandment of

19434-583: The university did not find records to show that Snowden attended the university and suggested that he may instead have attended Advanced Career Technologies, a private for-profit organization that operated as the Computer Career Institute at Johns Hopkins University. The University of Maryland University College acknowledged that Snowden had attended a summer session at a UM campus in Asia. Snowden's résumé stated that he estimated he would receive

19592-428: The whole voter body every two years, also serves an executive function, serving as the head of a council meeting and casting a tie-breaking vote for the council. As of 2016, the mayor is Betty Parker. Previous mayors include Joseph Peel, Charles L. Foster, who served from 2005 to 2007, and John Bell, who served from 1971 to 1981 and again from 2001 to 2005. The council holds its meetings every second and fourth Monday of

19750-456: The work of others, Snowden recalled a moment when he and his colleagues began to have severe ethical doubts. Snowden said 18- to 22-year-old analysts were suddenly: ...thrust into a position of extraordinary responsibility, where they now have access to all your private records. In the course of their daily work, they stumble across something that is completely unrelated in any sort of necessary sense—for example, an intimate nude photo of someone in

19908-894: The year 2013, publicly disputed Snowden's claims in June of that year. "This would mean that the CIA successfully bribed the Geneva police and judiciary. With all due respect, I just can't imagine it," said Maurer. In February 2009, following six counseling sessions from his supervisors regarding poor performance, Snowden resigned from the CIA. In 2009, Snowden began work as a contractor for Dell , which manages computer systems for multiple government agencies. Assigned to an NSA facility at Yokota Air Base near Tokyo , Snowden instructed top officials and military officers on how to defend their networks from Chinese hackers. Snowden looked into mass surveillance in China which prompted him to investigate and then expose Washington's mass surveillance program after he

20066-618: Was $ 200,000, Snowden said he took a pay cut to work at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton , where he sought employment in order to gather data and then release details of the NSA's worldwide surveillance activity. At the time of his departure from the U.S. in May 2013, he had been employed for 15 months inside the NSA's Hawaii regional operations center , which focuses on the electronic monitoring of China and North Korea , first for Dell and then for two months with Booz Allen Hamilton . While intelligence officials have described his position there as

20224-410: Was 31.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 81.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 68.4 males. The median income for a household in the city was $ 34,582, and the median income for a family was $ 41,071. Males had a median income of $ 31,307 versus $ 25,683 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 17,592. About 21.6% of families and 28.1% of the population were below

20382-466: Was a Salon article written by Greenwald detailing how Poitras's controversial films had made her a target of the government. Greenwald began working with Snowden in either February or April 2013, after Poitras asked Greenwald to meet her in New York City, at which point Snowden began providing documents to them. Barton Gellman , writing for The Washington Post , says his first direct contact

20540-500: Was actually an analyst and I designated individuals and groups for targeting." Snowden subsequently told Wired that while at Dell in 2011, "I would sit down with the CIO of the CIA, the CTO of the CIA, the chiefs of all the technical branches. They would tell me their hardest technology problems, and it was my job to come up with a way to fix them." During his time as an NSA analyst, directing

20698-479: Was an entry-level technical services officer. Snowden described his CIA experience in Geneva as formative, stating that the CIA deliberately got a Swiss banker drunk and encouraged him to drive home. Snowden said that when the latter was arrested for drunk driving, a CIA operative offered to help in exchange for the banker becoming an informant. Ueli Maurer , President of the Swiss Confederation for

20856-599: Was asked in 2009 to brief a conference in Tokyo. During his four years with Dell, he rose from supervising NSA computer system upgrades to working as what his résumé termed a "cyber strategist" and an "expert in cyber counterintelligence" at several U.S. locations. In 2010, he had a brief stint in New Delhi , India , where he enrolled himself in a local IT institute to learn core Java programming and advanced ethical hacking . In 2011, he returned to Maryland , where he spent

21014-703: Was based on such industries as lumbering , shipbuilding , grain export, and fish and oyster processing; it rivaled other ports such as Norfolk, Virginia , and Baltimore, Maryland . But the establishment in 1881 of the Elizabeth City and Norfolk Railroad, later renamed the Norfolk Southern Railway , encouraged a shift of industries from waterfront in Elizabeth City to the growing cities of North Carolina's Upper Coastal Plain and Piedmont . The declaration of World War II reinvigorated Elizabeth City's industries, particularly in shipbuilding, textiles, and aeronautics. Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City

21172-461: Was behind the bombing, which U.S. President Ronald Reagan cited as a justification for the 1986 United States bombing of Libya . In 1999, a multi-year investigation by the European Parliament highlighted the NSA's role in economic espionage in a report entitled 'Development of Surveillance Technology and Risk of Abuse of Economic Information'. That year, the NSA founded the NSA Hall of Honor ,

21330-525: Was born sometime before September 2022. Feeling a duty to fight in the Iraq War , Snowden enlisted in the United States Army on May 7, 2004, and became a Special Forces candidate through its 18X enlistment option. He did not complete the training due to a leg injury and was given an administrative discharge on September 28, 2004. Snowden was then employed for less than a year in 2005 as

21488-711: Was created to intercept and decipher the communications of the Axis powers . When the war ended, the SIS was reorganized as the Army Security Agency (ASA), and it was placed under the leadership of the Director of Military Intelligence. On May 20, 1949, all cryptologic activities were centralized under a national organization called the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA). This organization

21646-569: Was deeply interested in martial arts . At age 20, he listed his religion as Buddhism after working at a U.S. military base in Japan. In September 2019, as part of interviews relating to the release of his memoir Permanent Record , Snowden revealed to The Guardian that he married Lindsay Mills in a courthouse in Moscow. The couple's first son was born in December 2020, and their second son

21804-521: Was described by an NSA manager as "some of the most productive operations in TAO because they preposition access points into hard target networks around the world." Computers seized by the NSA due to interdiction are often modified with a physical device known as Cottonmouth. Cottonmouth is a device that can be inserted in the USB port of a computer to establish remote access to the targeted machine. According to

21962-517: Was established as the Cable and Telegraph Section, which was also known as the Cipher Bureau. It was headquartered in Washington, D.C., and was part of the war effort under the executive branch without direct congressional authorization. During the war, it was relocated in the army's organizational chart several times. On July 5, 1917, Herbert O. Yardley was assigned to head the unit. At that point,

22120-555: Was established in 1940 and Navy Air Station Weeksville in 1941 to provide valuable surveillance by seaplane and dirigible of German U-boats that were targeting American merchant shipping in East Coast waters. Additionally from 1942 to 1944, the Elizabeth City Shipyard supported the war effort with much of its production: thirty 111-foot SC-class submarine chasers , four YT-class yard tugboats , and six 104-foot QS-class quick supply boats. The Elizabeth City Shipyard built

22278-621: Was given full administrator privileges with virtually unlimited access to NSA data. Snowden was offered a position on the NSA's elite team of hackers , Tailored Access Operations , but turned it down to join Booz Allen. An anonymous source later said that Booz Allen's hiring screeners found possible discrepancies in Snowden's résumé but still decided to hire him. Snowden's résumé stated that he attended computer-related classes at Johns Hopkins University . A spokeswoman for Johns Hopkins said that

22436-453: Was home to two hangars, one still existing as corrugated steel, and a slightly larger one constructed out of Southern Yellow Pine , to conserve metal for the WWII war effort. This latter hangar was the largest wooden structure in the world until its demise by fire in 1995. A joint public-private airpark adjacent to the Coast Guard base is in the planning stages. Intended to make Elizabeth City

22594-697: Was illegal and possibly unconstitutional. Edward Joseph Snowden was born on June 21, 1983, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina . Snowden's father, Lonnie, was a warrant officer in the U.S. Coast Guard , and his mother, Elizabeth, was a clerk at the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland . His older sister, Jessica, was a lawyer at the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C. His maternal grandfather, Edward J. Barrett ,

22752-495: Was indicted for espionage. His disclosures revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many run by the NSA and the Five Eyes intelligence alliance with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments and prompted a cultural discussion about national security and individual privacy. In 2013, Snowden was hired by an NSA contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton , after previous employment with Dell and

22910-607: Was not a whistleblower in the sense required by the Whistleblower Protection Act. The bulk of the report is classified. The exact size of Snowden's disclosure is unknown, but Australian officials have estimated 15,000 or more Australian intelligence files and British officials estimate at least 58,000 British intelligence files were included. NSA Director Keith Alexander initially estimated that Snowden had copied anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 NSA documents. Later estimates provided by U.S. officials were in

23068-576: Was not clear whether Russia and China stole Snowden's data or whether Snowden voluntarily handed it over to remain at liberty in Hong Kong and Moscow. In April 2015, the Henry Jackson Society , a British neoconservative think tank , published a report claiming that Snowden's intelligence leaks negatively impacted Britain's ability to fight terrorism and organized crime. Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International , criticized

23226-501: Was on May 16, 2013. According to Gellman, Snowden approached Greenwald after the Post declined to guarantee publication within 72 hours of all 41 PowerPoint slides that Snowden had leaked exposing the PRISM electronic data mining program, and to publish online an encrypted code allowing Snowden to later prove that he was the source. Snowden communicated using encrypted email , and going by

23384-502: Was originally established within the U.S. Department of Defense under the command of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . The AFSA was tasked with directing the Department of Defense communications and electronic intelligence activities, except those of U.S. military intelligence units. However, the AFSA was unable to centralize communications intelligence and failed to coordinate with civilian agencies that shared its interests, such as

23542-405: Was published weeks later by Der Spiegel . After disclosing the copied documents, Snowden promised that nothing would stop subsequent disclosures. In June 2013, he said, "All I can say right now is the US government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped." On May 20, 2013, Snowden flew to Hong Kong, where he was staying when

23700-526: Was reported that some of these data reflected eavesdropping on citizens in countries like Germany, Spain, and France, but later on, it became clear that those data were collected by European agencies during military missions abroad and were subsequently shared with NSA. In 2013, reporters uncovered a secret memo that claims the NSA created and pushed for the adoption of the Dual EC DRBG encryption standard that contained built-in vulnerabilities in 2006 to

23858-506: Was saying was true he had to take ones that included very sensitive, detailed blueprints of how the NSA does what they do. Thus, the Snowden documents allegedly contained sensitive NSA blueprints detailing how the NSA operates, which would allow someone who read them to evade or even duplicate NSA surveillance. Further, a 2015 New York Times article reported that the Islamic State group had studied Snowden's revelations about how

24016-523: Was set up by the NSA to monitor the phone communications of Senators Frank Church and Howard Baker , as well as key leaders of the civil rights movement , including Martin Luther King Jr. , and prominent U.S. journalists and athletes who criticized the Vietnam War . However, the project turned out to be controversial, and an internal review by the NSA concluded that its Minaret program was "disreputable if not outright illegal". The NSA mounted

24174-547: Was the Technical Director of IAD and represented the NSA as cochairman of the Technical Working Group for the AES competition, and Michael Jacobs , who headed IAD at the time. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 , the NSA believed that it had public support for a dramatic expansion of its surveillance activities. According to Neal Koblitz and Alfred Menezes , the period when

24332-436: Was the first journalist to report on Snowden's documents. He said the U.S. government urged him not to specify by name which companies were involved, but Gellman decided that to name them "would make it real to Americans." Reports also revealed details of Tempora , a secret British surveillance program run by the NSA's British partner, GCHQ. The initial reports included details about NSA call database , Boundless Informant , and

24490-417: Was to be a realization of information processing at higher speeds in cyberspace. The massive extent of the NSA's spying, both foreign and domestic, was revealed to the public in a series of detailed disclosures of internal NSA documents beginning in June 2013. Most of the disclosures were leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden . On 4 September 2020, the NSA's surveillance program was ruled unlawful by

24648-424: Was to break the communications (chiefly diplomatic) of other nations. At the Washington Naval Conference , it aided American negotiators by providing them with the decrypted traffic of many of the conference delegations, including the Japanese . The Black Chamber successfully persuaded Western Union , the largest U.S. telegram company at the time, as well as several other communications companies, to illegally give

24806-519: Was under Union control for the remainder of the war, as was most of coastal North Carolina. Confederate irregulars engaged in guerrilla warfare with Union forces in the area for the remainder of the war. Meanwhile, overland travel slowly improved, enabling greater trade between neighboring counties. The ferry continued to provide transport between Elizabeth City and Camden County. But the completion of competing canals and railroads around Elizabeth City meant that neighboring cities began to draw off some of

24964-697: Was worked on by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Boeing , Computer Sciences Corporation , IBM , and Litton Industries . Some NSA whistleblowers complained internally about major problems surrounding Trailblazer. This led to investigations by Congress and the NSA and DoD Inspectors General . The project was canceled in early 2004. Turbulence started in 2005. It was developed in small, inexpensive "test" pieces, rather than one grand plan like Trailblazer. It also included offensive cyber-warfare capabilities, like injecting malware into remote computers. Congress criticized Turbulence in 2007 for having similar bureaucratic problems as Trailblazer. It

#581418