Edward Snowden's New Job: Tech Support

Nerval's Lobster writes "Government whistleblower Edward Snowden, exiled in Russia after releasing top-secret documents about the National Security Agency's surveillance activities to the press, has a new job: tech support. Snowden's lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told the Associated Press that his client starts work Nov. 1 for a "major" Russian Website, which he declined to name. In June, Snowden—a former CIA employee who worked as a contractor for the NSA—began feeding an enormous pile of classified charts and documents about federal surveillance programs to The Guardian and other newspapers. Many of those documents suggested that the NSA, ordinarily tasked with intercepting communications from terrorists and foreign governments, collects massive amounts of information on ordinary Americans, which in turn ignited a firestorm of controversy. The Snowden revelations have continued into this week, with The Washington Post reporting that the NSA has aggressively targeted Google and Yahoo servers. Snowden's documents suggest that the agency has figured out how to tap the links connecting the two tech giants' datacenters to the broader Web. Google told the Post that it was "troubled" by the report. A Yahoo spokesperson insisted that the company had "strict controls in place to protect the security of our datacenters" and that "we have not given access to our data centers to the NSA or to any other government agency.""

Comments

The US, for all its power, hasn't plugged the leak

[davide marney]

Whatever Snowden did to bottle up his stolen cache of documents, it has apparently kept the entire US security apparatus at bay.

Now, THAT'S a project that would look good on an IT resume, anywhere.

Good life

[skaag]

After having lived in Russia for some 6 month cumulatively, I have this to say: Edward Snowden is going to love it.

A few reasons:

- Incredibly beautiful women
- Incredibly cool clubs and bars
- Awesome Moscow Ballet / Classical Music / Cultural Events / Arts / Museums
- McDonalds has a whole wheat bun, need I say more?

Worked for Capone

[Overzeetop]

If the FBI can't get him, the IRS will. Nice.

Re:No. He did not

[isorox]

"Snowden did transition from a whistle blower to a spy though"

No. He did not.

He was a whistleblower and remains a whistleblower.

He did. Initially the U.S. media were supportive of him as a whistleblower. Their owners and editors then had their briefing, and suddenly actions that were pro-american whistleblowing were anti-american spying.

So yes, he didn't change, but the media's portrayal of him did, and that's what's important.

Re:your reputation will precede you...

[Nyder]

I'm surprised he was hired in the first place. He might be talented and an asset to any organization but he's also proven himself to be a liability. He will likely never be hired anywhere anybody has something to hide ever again.

And yet he was given a job.

You know the saying, if you are doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide? Well, that applies to jobs he works at. If they have nothing to hide, then they have nothing to fear.

If the NSA had nothing to hide, why do they fear what Snowden leaked? Remember, they first said he didn't have access to anything and didn't have anything important. Are they still saying that? No, they went to tell the other countries that will force economic sanctions on any country helping him. Which is a lie, because they haven't done shit to Russia.

If i was a honest company, Snowden is the sort of person I'd probably like working there.