Cybersecurity and Cybersecrets

This post was a long time coming. I have no idea why, but I have a healthy obsession with the lives of Snowden (as in Edward) and Assange (as in Julian). Which is weird, right? What these men did was treasonous, and wrong, and put the US in danger, right? 

Or what if what they did was an extreme form of citizen journalism or whistle blowing? Sure, what they did was risky and questionable/downright wrong legally speaking, but was it morally wrong? Are these men criminals? Or are they the ultimate martyrs for truth and transparency?

Personally, I think the latter is true.

Think about how the world would be today without folks like Assange, or Snowden, or Deep Throat and Daniel Ellsberg if we want to go back further into history. What if WikiLeaks didn't exist? What if the NSA leak was smothered before it lit aflame in the media and the public? What if The Washington Post never printed that article? What if the public never got to see The Pentagon Papers?

WikiLeaks: Exposed corruption in Kenya, "friendly fire" in Afghanistan, the US government's blind eye regarding reports of torture in Iraq during the Iraq War

Snowden: Exposed NSA's PRISM (and more) programs, use of metadata interception, and various international and commercial partners

Some may argue that this type of action, especially regarding WikiLeaks, is "aiding and abetting the enemy." But is that what it's really doing? Has the actions of Assange or Snowden put a major number or lives in danger? I think if that was the case, we'd hear something about the life-or-death thing blasting in the media. 

What is does endanger is the chance of governments getting away with questionable actions and it highlights the fact that "transparency" is to "government" as "classy" is to "Kardashian."

Governments denouncing Assage and Snowden? Snowden threatened with treason? Of course! They just got caught. You think that they're going to let him get away with it?

My point is that people like Assage and Snowden, like Deep Throat and Ellsberg, are brave. In the face of big, BIG punishments, they go out and they speak the truth, wether or not it wants to be heard or wether or not it is allowed to be heard.

And I know I shouldn't, but I can't help but find that honorable.

(This is here because I like Benedict Cumberbatch's face)