Edward Snowden Essays (Examples)

Is Edward Snowden a Hero or Traitor

Criminal Justice

Edward Snowden

Is Edward Snowden a hero or traitor?

Is Edward Snowden a hero or traitor?

Edward Snowden used to work as an intelligence contractor. Lately he leaked information about some security projects. The leaked information is about secret program carried out by NASA and is a massive surveillance program. Snowden believes that the tax money of people of America is a liability on government and government institutions and hence they have the right to know how and where their money is being used. On the other hand, the president of United States calls those files classified, hence Snowden is charged with accused of being a traitor. The public, on the other hands calls him a hero and it is raising voices for Snowden who escaped to Hong Kong.

Goldman (2013) says that Snowden was a whistle-blower before his "promotion" to either hero or the traitor's role. He…… [Read More]

Analyzing Patriotism and Edward Snowden

Patriotism/Edward Snowden

Intstitution:

Edward Snowden, 30, well-known for his previous job as a contractor in the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), is presently living in ussia since his escape from the United States via Hong Kong, due to a revelation of extensive internet and phone surveillance carried out by U.S. intelligence. He used to live with his girlfriend in Hawaii, but after the revelation, initially left for Hong Kong, where his identity got public through UK's Guardian newspaper, with his consent. The U.S., as they filed charges, asked local officials for his deportation. Snowden thus left Hong Kong on 23rd June primarily for Moscow, but with the intent of seeking refuge in Ecuador (BBC News, 2013).

Background

As reported, Edward Snowden was brought up in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and then moved to Maryland later, near the headquarters of NSA at Fort Meade. He joined the U.S. Army in 2003,…… [Read More]

Analyzing Prism Edward Snowden

PISM- Edward Snowden

PISM

PISM, deployed by the NSA (National Security Agency) of United States, is a tool used for private electronic data gathering which belongs to the people who use leading internet services such as Gmail, Outlook, Facebook, etc. In the wake of 9/11, the latest effort made by the U.S. government for electronic surveillance is the development of PISM, which initially started in the supremacy of President Bush with the Patriot Act, and later extended to include the (FISA) Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Actordained in 2006 and 2007 (Sottek & Kopstein, 2013)

Though the complete knowledge regarding the functioning of PISM is still unknown, but the basic impression implies that it allows the NSA to apply for data from leading technology companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, Apple, etc. about specific people. However, U.S. government claims that the data can be collected only after acquiring the permission from…… [Read More]

Technology and National Security Privacy Issues Edward Snowden

technology and national security / privacy issues / Edward snowden

The massive 9/11 attacks revealed some obvious flaws in our security system. Terrorists not only managed to slip through the immigration and airports but also managed to live, train and plan within the United States for many years. The resulting fear of other terrorist groups who might have been living and training in U.S. were justifiable. In this regard, congress came close to passing the patriot Act that offered the government more powers to go after the terrorists. Nevertheless, security has since been tightened at the airports, borders and ports. Moreover, department of homeland security has since been created to monitor and control the efforts (Lyon, 2007).

Why government surveillance violates our constitutional rights

The government surveillance has no authority to have round the clock information of our religion, sleeping and waking hours, a person making calls to his friends,…… [Read More]

Edward Snowden Essay

This essay reviews the relevant literature to provide a background on Edward Snowden and how his high-profile actions adversely affected the work of the National Security Agency (NSA). An analysis of what the NSA was doing prior to the leaks and how it collects intelligence information now is followed by an examination concerning what Snowden leaked and why. Finally, a discussion concerning whether the U.S. government violated Snowden’s constitutional rights is followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning this issue in the conclusion.

Background of the Issue

Beginning in June 2013, Edward Snowden, a computer analyst working for the National Security Agency began leaking thousands of classified documents. These classified documents were disclosed to the Guardian and alleged that the NSA routinely gathered telephonic metadata from telecommunications companies, allowing them to scrutinize American citizens’ Internet activities (Morrison, 2014). According to Francheschi-Bicchierai (2014), among the thousands of…… [Read More]

Snowden's Moral Convictions About Privacy

Quandary of Prosecuting Edward Snowden

The source of law that controls the prosecution of Edward Snowden is both federal and international law. Because Snowden is an American citizen who sought asylum overseas, he is outside of the direct jurisdiction of the U.S. government. Still, the U.S. government is the entity that wants Snowden for his crimes. Snowden has not committed any crimes except for those that violated the U.S.

Snowden can be charged and arrested by a state law-enforcement officer if he commits some sort of crime in that particular state. However, the crimes that Snowden has become notorious for were not committed at a state level, but rather at the federal level. Those crimes must get prosecuted in a federal setting, since they were committed against the nation as a whole.

The crux of the matter with the Snowden issue is that he transgressed federal law for ethical reasons.…… [Read More]

Argument Analysis Applied to Homeland Security

Privacy, Security, Whistleblowing

[Surveillance is a necessary evil to prevent terrorist attacks from happening.]A [For example, the secret "PRSM" effort saved New York City's subways from a 2009 terrorist plot led by a young Afghan-American, Najibullah Zazi.]

A = Main Argument

Surveillance is a necessary evil to prevent terrorist attacks

B = Level

The secret PRSM effort saved New York City's subways in 2009 from a terrorist plot.

Claim B. is Level 1 and supports Argument A, which is the main argument.

[Surveillance violates the right to privacy by citizens worldwide.]A [Of course, citizens already release their private data to government and companies alike, whether it be the tax office, health services or banks.]B [However, in all those cases, we can decide for ourselves which information is shared, so our privacy is not violated, whereas the government surveillance schemes sweep up information without our explicit permission.]C

C = Main Argument…… [Read More]

The Right to Privacy

1. The constitutional foundation for the right to privacy is multifaceted. However, this right is implicit to the right of liberty guaranteed by this document. In particular, privacy is a manifestation of the civil liberties which all citizens are assured of in the U.S. Constitution. The preamble to the constitution states this fact. The preamble reveals the Constitution was created in part to “secure the Blessings of Liberty” (Founding Fathers). The blessings of liberty quickly become a curse if there is no privacy. If people were able to see and become cognizant of everything everyone did, then people are not necessarily free or experiencing a state of liberty. Privacy, therefore, is implicit to liberty, which is why the constitutional defense of this concept provides the foundation for the right to privacy.

There are other parts of the constitution which provide a foundation to the right of privacy as it relates…… [Read More]

Use of Technology in the Boston Bombings Investigations

Technology Boston Bombings

The Use of Technology in the Boston Bombings Investigations

The Boston Marathon bombing incident was an act of terror that took place on April 15th, 2013 during the annual Boston Marathon. During the event, bombs were positioned in proximity to the race's finish line. The bombs killed two individuals and injured over two hundred fifty others would where close by. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev were the primary suspects in the case that were identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). A day after the bombings a massive manhunt ensued to find the individuals. However, one of the interesting aspects about the case is how the FBI was able to identify the suspects. An unprecedented amount of digital data was available for use and the FBI and other organizations utilized crowdsourcing techniques to help funnel through the data.

The advent of digital technologies coupled with the…… [Read More]

Bigger Data

component graded.

The amassing of data has become an integral process of life in the 21st century (Nunan and Di Domenico, 2013, p. 2). This fact is partially reflected by the fact that in contemporary times, people are generating much more data than they previously did. Every time someone goes shopping and makes a purchase with a credit card, receives a call or sends a text message, or visits a web site on a computer or downloads information to a mobile phone application, they are generating data. This data is stored and, through sophisticated processes of analytics that involve data mining and even predictive capabilities, is analyzed to determine aspects of consumer, individual, and collective behavior. The generation of these massive quantities of data in the myriad forms such data takes at the rapidity of real-time access is known as big data, which government representatives claim they are analyzing to…… [Read More]

Why Privacy Is Important

ight to privacy has been under attack in recent years from many sources. Issues such as terrorism and technological development has provided an opportunity and an excuse to lessen the protections that have been previously awarded Americans, as well as citizens of a number of other countries, in the name of their own protection. Albeit the threats of terrorism are real, there are also a series of threats that come from the violation of citizens' right to maintain their privacy in their daily activities. It is not only an invasion of privacy from the governments around the world that is an issue, but private organizations are also able to collect an immense amount of intrusive data about their customers or target markets. A legitimate balance between these concerns must be reached and in a timely manner because there is a significant amount of evidence that this balance is uneven and…… [Read More]

Will Congress End the War on Terror

Contemporary Political Issue: The War on Terror

Introduction

On September 20th, 2001, President George W. Bush proposed the new Office of Homeland Security to help confront a new threat to national security in the first step of what became the War on Terrorism (Select Committee on Homeland Security, 2004). One week earlier, Congress had signed off on the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), allowing the president broad scope for using military force against countries or organizations who “planned, authorized, committed, or aided” terrorism (Ackerman & Hathaway, 2011). 17 years and more than $2 trillion later, the War on Terrorism continues with no sign of easing up (Amadeo, 2018). Though President Trump ran a campaign on getting American soldiers out of the Middle East and letting other countries handle the ISIS threat, the war on terror rhetoric out of the White House has continued unabated, with sights now set…… [Read More]

Ethics and Corporate Responsibility in the Workplace and the World

PharmaCARE -- Case Review

The Stakeholders

There are numerous stakeholders and stakeholder groups that are presented in this case. The stakeholders can be thought of in two different primary groups to make the first set of distinctions, internal and external groups.

Internal Stakeholders

The management team

The employees

CompCARE and PharmaCARE Investors

External Stakeholders

Colberian Citizens and orkers

The Drugs Patients

Employees, Management, and Investors at ellco

Society in General

PharmaCARE's Unethical Treatment of the Colberia's

PharmaCARE's received support from the Colberia's in many forms, yet they compensated the Coberia's with nearly nothing and even worse caused ecological damage to their communities. The first way in which the Colberia's supported the PharmaCARE Corporation is through their sharing of intellectual property that had been passed down their ancestral linages for an untold number of years. The "healers" had accumulated generations of ancient tidbits that were undoubtedly accumulated through trial and error…… [Read More]

Hadoop Is a File Storage System That

Hadoop is a file storage system that has become increasingly popular in contemporary society. Although it was technically developed last decade, its ubiquity did not truly arise until the current decade. It has already shaped this decade, and will more than likely play a substantial role in shaping this century, which will be noted for its developments in information technology. A thorough examination of the impact of Hadoop illustrates that it will shape the century because it facilitates Big Data, enables analytics for massive quantities, varieties, and expedience of data, and is open source.

Hadoop is the single greatest technological invention that has spawned the current phenomenon of big data, in which organizations and individuals are now able to process vastly greater amounts of data of a host of different types at speeds previously unthinkable. Big Data is used everywhere today, from department stores that monitor customers via smart phones…… [Read More]

Counterterrorism and Intelligence Framework

Counterterrorism

Counter-Terrorism

Counter-Terrorism Framework

The author of this report is asked to answer to a number of questions relating to counter-terrorism frameworks. First, the author is asked to provide a revised framework for the national terrorism prevention and response agencies in the United States. Per the parameters of the assignment, there are to be at least three agencies involved in the revised framework. Subsequent to that, the author is asked to answer to how and when the agencies will interact and why. The author is asked what tools can be used to help the agencies function and do their jobs and that will be included in the framework summary. The author is asked to wrap up the paper by enumerating at least three policy and/or procedural recommendations that should be implemented to make the existing framework gel and function more effectively.

evised Framework

The existing framework for law enforcement and…… [Read More]

Balancing Free Speech and National Security

ight to Expression: The Fine Line of the First Amendment

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the enactment of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools equired to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (the PATIOT ACT), there has been a growing debate concerning the proper role of the government in protecting Americans while balancing their right to free expression. To determine the facts, this paper reviews the relevant literature to provide a discussion concerning the line between an individual's right to expression and the role of the government to protect its citizens from harm, including some salient examples of this conflict in the nation's past. An analysis concerning whether Americans have come any closer to reconciling these issues is followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.

eview and Discussion

On the one hand, the First Amendment to…… [Read More]

Mann Existential Technology Just as Steve Mann's

Mann, Existential Technology

Just as Steve Mann's 2003 article "Existential Technology" appears to be a description and philosophical justification for the author's artwork, it could just as accurately be described as a work of eerie prophecy. Reading Mann's document a little over a decade after its initial publication gives the uneasy feeling that this conceptual artist has actually foreseen the future. Of course, this is in many ways the function of art, if we recall Ezra Pound's famous dictum that artists are the antennae of the human race, picking up cultural and historical signals before the rest of us do. But it is remarkable in 2014 to see just how much Mann was anticipating back in 2003.

lthough Mann describes himself in the article as someone who has "lived as a cyborg for 30 years" ( Mann 25) what he really means by this is that he has been incorporating…… [Read More]

Friend or Foe

Intelligence

Israel collects intelligence on American foreign policy related to Israel and the Middle East, as well as on scientific and technological developments, including those from the private sector. The gathering of intelligence from a foreign ally is neither an unusual nor new practice. Moreover, the United States reciprocates the favor and likewise gathers intelligence on Israel. The Untied States certainly cannot expect Israel or any other nation to refrain from using surveillance, while at the same time gathering intelligence against those very same nations. For Israel, areas of general interest for Israeli intelligence collectors include military and economic policy and of course, intelligence services themselves such as the CIA (Caramela, 2014). Intelligence is used to bolster Israel's own national security, military, and technological capabilities. The methods Israel uses to gather intelligence are varied and range from computer hacking to communications surveillance. easons for gathering intelligence on an ally are…… [Read More]

Accounting for Contingency Plans

Management of isk

Mitigating isk

Actually, there are a number of different ways that one can answer the interrogative from the CEO about whether risk elimination is possible. Those different approaches involve everything from the philosophical to the pragmatic. However, since it is a CEO that will receive this answer, it is probably more advisable to issue an answer from the latter branch of thought, while merely alluding to some of the tenets of the former. isk always exists because of the nature of the world, which in itself is unpredictable and offers no guarantees. To that end, the most vigilant organizations are able to mitigate risk and reduce the likelihood of any disadvantageous occurrences. It is virtually impossible to outright eradicate any possibility of risk, particularly when considering various information technology systems associated with data management and computer networking, for the simple fact that new threats and new possibilities…… [Read More]

Rationalism Politics Impacts Public's View the Six

ationalism Politics Impacts Public's View

The six deadly sins in public administration are mandated in Drucker's "The deadly sins in public administration." The first one is to have too great of a "lofty objective" (Drucker, 1980, p. 103) in the aim that a program is trying to achieve. Programs need to have objectives that are specific and not targeted towards some general good. The next one is to incorporate too wide a scope of objectives in programs. It is much better to start out with a finite (or a single) objective and then attempt to move on to another initiative than to do too many things at one time. The third deadly sin is overstaffing. Simply by sending a great number of people to address a problem will never replace adequately thinking through a solution.

The fourth is to not sufficiently test a theory before applying it. Administrators need to…… [Read More]

Sociological Analysis of Hyperconnectivity Sociology Hyperconnectivity Is

Sociological Analysis of Hyperconnectivity

Sociology

Hyperconnectivity is a fairly new concept that it is indigenous to the 21st century. The term was coined only a few years ago by Canadian social scientists as a way to describe how people are connect via machines, networked organizations, and networked societies overall. Thus, this is a term that could have been coined now. "Hyper" is usually an adjective to describe a state of excess excitement and unruly energy; "hyper" as it exists as a prefix coming from the Greek language, means abnormal, unusual, and appearing in quantities beyond what is normal. Both definitions can be useful when considering the global culture or state of hyperconnectivity that much of the world finds itself in during the 21st century. We have mobile devices that connect to the internet wherever we are and wherever there is an internet connection. We have long since had computers and…… [Read More]

Contemporary History

influential factor in the evolution of the international world of politics following the end of World War II was the interrelationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. The conflictive positions between the two states influenced both the evolution of highly dominant states as well as minor governments. The world divided into two military fronts, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) -- 1949, and the Warsaw Pact in 1955. The international relations were dominated by tensions between the East and the West that shaped a conflict of ideological, political, and strategic manner but not military. This bilateral contention has since come to be known as the Cold War. This image of non-conventional warfare was unfamiliar decades of years ago when massacres and slaughterous mayhem was the representative picture of battlefields that most would have associated wars with up until the emergence and unfolding of the Cold War. In 2013,…… [Read More]

Contemporary Inheritance of Greek Political Thought in Plato's Apology

Plato

It is possible to read Plato's Apology as the best extant textual representation of the legacy of Athens in the fifth century CE in law and politics. The fact is that the Athenians, although they voted to put Socrates to death, might very well agree on principle with this evaluation. The Apology is, after all, a representation of the Athenian system of trial by jury, and it is worth recalling that this judicial system was considered to be a founding myth of Athens itself. Earlier in the century, roughly a decade before Socrates was born, the tragedian Aeschylus in the Oresteia would represent the mythological and divinely-sanctioned origins of the Athenian jury trial, as a replacement for the endlessly bloody cycle of the lex talionis, when the goddess Athena invites a group of Athenian citizens to sit in judgment on Orestes, who killed his mother in revenge for her…… [Read More]

Abdo's 2013 Testimony to the American Civil

Abdo's (2013) testimony to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is about the NSA privacy breaches first exposed in depth by Edward Snowden. The speaker accuses the NSA of using intrusive and "in certain respects unlawful" surveillance methods (p. 2). The NSA has also used their surveillance techniques outside as well as inside of the United States. Abdo (2013) speaks directly to the ACLU to outline the scope of the NSA's surveillance program. The overall purpose of the speech is to suggest what role the ACLU can and should play in promoting civil liberties, which is of course the mission of the organization.

Because NSA surveillance is a direct threat to privacy and civil liberties, the subject matter is directly relevant to the core goals of the ACLU. First, the author lists some of the main components of the NSA surveillance program. A few of the components are rooted in…… [Read More]

Letter to Mark Zuckerberg

I actually agree that money is an important concept in the contemporary society and by gaining access to as much as possible someone can make wonders. The numerous areas lacking basic needs raise public awareness regarding the way that people need to think in order to make the world a better place. Even with this, lacking the funds to help people there means that one is powerless in the face of suffering.

Despite the significance of money today, one should also acknowledge the importance of being human. This is exactly what the initial Facebook involved -- people knew that this was a social network built on the need to bring people together rather than to simply increase someone's profits. Individuals would use it as a place to escape society and to get involved in a community where things other than money were important. Appreciation for simple things was possible there…… [Read More]

Electro Communicate

Advances in electronic communication have made it significantly easier for white-collar criminals to commit fraud. The crux of this point is based on the fact that virtually all aspects of electronic communication are stored and accessible to someone, somewhere. Anything a person does on the internet or via the telephone -- whether mobile or conventional phones -- is recorded and is able to be tracked. Thus, white-collar criminals simply need to gain access to this data since it is available in abundant amounts. Once they are able to access that data, they can successfully leverage relevant aspects of it to their advantage. For instance, they can take a credit card number and make purchases.

If I were a swindler I could use the increasing reliance on electronic communication to my advantage by breaching the secure information of a retail store such as Target and accessing credit cards, and using them…… [Read More]

Society Changes Technology Advancements

Technology and Social Change

There is an intrinsic relationship between technology and social change. The exact nature of that relationship is interesting, especially when one considers the myriad facets of it. On the one hand, technology impacts social change in a way that is arguably causal. On the other hand, social changes can help to engender technological advances, which in turn continue to affect additional social changes. In this way, the relationship between these two phenomena are somewhat cyclical, much like the proverbial chicken and the egg conundrum. Suffice to say that both technology and social change affect one another, and are interwoven in the sort of advancements they foster in today's world.

It is difficult to discuss today's society without considering the impact that the personal computer, cellular phones, and the internet have had upon it. Quite simply, the ramifications of these technological developments are that considerable. The commercialization…… [Read More]

United Kingdom Freedom of Expression within the Social Media

The Positive and Negative Effects of Freedom of Expression within the Social Media in the U.K.

Introduction

In essence, social media in the UK provides an amazing platform for people to freely express their views, share information, and interact. Indeed, as McGoldrick (2013, p. 49) observes, “Facebook and other internet-based social networking sites (SNSs) have revolutionized modern communications.” Some of the most popular social media platforms in the country include, but that are not limited to, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. It is important to note that unlike in the physical world where relations between people are governed by various social rules and etiquette standards, relations on social media tend to present a limitless and unrestricting facade. In recent times, some countries have attempted to limit the way people relate on social media – even closely monitoring content in an attempt to ensure that freedom of expression in social media is…… [Read More]

New Media and Social Media

New Media Q’s
1
I am a techno-optimist when it comes to some types of social media—such as YouTube, which is a great way to share informational videos on topics that are not covered by mainstream media. I am less fond of Facebook and Twitter and so would regard myself as a techno-pessimist when it comes to these forms of social media, as they tend to be more of a platform for people to spout off their own personal views and opinions. At least YouTube provides the platform for content to be shared and searched in an easy manner. Twitter is more for trolling and Facebook is more for creating a shrine to oneself. Twitter can be a way to get headline news out the door quickly, but I myself have never found it to be my go-to source of news information. I prefer news blogs like ZeroHedge, which are…… [Read More]

Challenges Facing the Intelligence Community

U.S. Intelligence Community

The nature of the work that is conducted by the U.S. intelligence community conditions some of the challenges it faces. The processes of gathering, analyzing, and disseminating intelligence locate members of the intelligence community in situations and relationships that, if not unique to the community, are certainly lodestones to controversy. The discussion will primarily track challenges that are related to improvements of the "intelligence product" and the building or rebuilding of "relationships with important external constituencies."[footnoteRef:1] The purpose of the paper is to increase the saliency of challenges that are fundamental to the business of the intelligent community, and that endure because they are, indeed, endemic. A review of extant documents and scholarly articles will support this author's discussion and conclusions. [1: "Making Intelligence Smarter: The Future of U.S. Intelligence." 1996. [Report of an Independent Task Forces] http://fas.org/irp/cfr.html]

Section II: Three Challenges Confronting the U.S. Intelligence Community…… [Read More]

Analyzing Class Race Sex

Origins and Demise of the Concept of ace by Charles Hirschman

In modern times, the reality of race is indisputable, especially for American eyes. acial discrimination is not just skin deep and based on skin color, features and hair texture, but it has rather existed since ancient times to date, with age-old exploitation and discrimination. Through this essay, Hirschman discusses the theory of racism history, in relation to social science. He concludes that this concept of race and racism is not a primordial or ancestral belief rather it has developed with modernity over the past 40 decades and reached its pinnacle in the early twentieth century (385).

Since ancient times, cultural diversity evolved naturally as people learned to survive and settle in different climatic zones and their physical features like skin color and hair varied according to climatic conditions. Different outcomes were recorded as they interacted; some were accommodated calmly…… [Read More]

General Aspects on Social Engineering

Social Engineering as it Applies to Information Systems Security

The research takes into account several aspects that better create an overview of the term and the impact it has on security systems. In this sense, the first part of the analysis reviews the concept of social engineering and the aspects it entails. Secondly, it provides a series of cases that were influenced by social engineering and the effects each had on the wider picture of information security. Thirdly, the research looks at what policies are set in place to avoid this type of practice and how has the information security society responded to the threat posed by social engineering. Finally, possible solutions to the issues social engineering raises are also presented in the context of the increased technological environment in which business is conducted in the world we live in today.

General aspects on social engineering

A non-academic definition of…… [Read More]