In his latest revelation, Snowden tells WIRED magazine
that the NSA has a secret, autonomous program called “Monstermind” that
can respond to cyberattacks from other countries without human
intervention.
And beyond
domestic privacy concerns, Snowden warns, the program could cause an
international diplomacy nightmare for the U.S. as well, because the
cyberattacks launched by MonsterMind are often routed through
third-party computers housed in foreign countries.
“These
attacks can be spoofed,” Snowden said. “You could have someone sitting
in China, for example, making it appear that one of these attacks is
originating in Russia. And then we end up shooting back at a Russian
hospital. What happens next?”
So,
is that the final major disclosure to come from what the government
claims are nearly two million stolen documents that Snowden took with
him when he left the country?
As it turns out, Snowden isn’t even entirely sure himself.
That’s because, he claims, he
hasn’t even read the majority of documents in his possession. Though he
says the actual number of classified documents is far less than the 1.7
million the government claims were stolen, he suspects there may be
several more bombshells hidden within that could ruin the careers of
several high-profile government officials.
“I
think they think there’s a smoking gun in there that would be the death
of them all politically,” he says. “The fact that the government’s
investigation failed—that they don’t know what was taken and that they
keep throwing out these ridiculous, huge numbers—implies to me that
somewhere in their damage assessment they must have seen something that
was like, ‘Holy sh_t.’ And they think it’s still out there.”
Snowden is literally wrapped in the American flag for the cover of the September issue of Wired.
And while critics of Snowden might take offense at the gesture, the
hugely controversial figure says his actions were intended only to
preserve American ideals, not harm them.
“I
told the government I’d volunteer for prison, as long as it served the
right purpose,” he said. “I care more about the country than what
happens to me. But we can’t allow the law to become a political weapon
or agree to scare people away from standing up for their rights, no
matter how good the deal. I’m not going to be part of that.”
Love him or hate him, Snowden says that even after his revelations the NSA still hasn’t finished reforming its own system.
“They
still haven’t fixed their problems. They still have negligent auditing,
they still have things going for a walk, and they have no idea where
they’re coming from and they have no idea where they’re going,” he said.
“And if that’s the case, how can we as the public trust the NSA with
all of our information, with all of our private records, the permanent
record of our lives?”
No comments:
Post a Comment