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Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden Quotes

System Administrator

Edward Snowden, born on June 21, 1983, is a system administrator. He is renowned for his disclosure of the global surveillance programs of the United States National Security Agency (NSA). In 2013, he leaked a large number of documents about these programs, which sparked widespread international attention.

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Famous Edward Snowden Quotes

“The geek inherited the earth”

Internet Cia Nsa Spying Surveillance Capitalism

Book:Permanent Record

Source: Permanent Record

“cudowny okres, kiedy to internet tworzyli ludzie dla ludzi i kiedy to ludzie byli jego najważniejszą częścią.”

Internet People Relations Gone But Not Forgotten Wonderful Time People For People

Book:Permanent Record

Source: Permanent Record

“When you use any kind of internet based capability, any kind of electronic capability, to cause damage to a private entity or a foreign nation or a foreign actor, these are potential acts of war.”

Kind War Use Actors Nations Causes Internet Damage Capability Entity

Author:Edward Snowden

“US spend more on research and development than the other countries, so we shouldn't be making the internet a more hostile, a more aggressive territory.”

Country Development Internet Research Territory Aggressive Other Countries Hostile Research And Development

Author:Edward Snowden

“America should be cooling down the tensions in the internet, making it a more trusted environment, making it a more secure environment, making it a more reliable environment, because that's the foundation of our economy and our future.”

Should America Economy Environment Internet Foundation Secure Tension Our Future Trusted Cooling

Author:Edward Snowden

“US has to be able to rely on a safe and interconnected internet in order to compete with other countries.”

Country Able Order Internet Safe Rely Other Countries Interconnected

Author:Edward Snowden

“When people conceptualize a cyber-attack, they do tend to think about parts of the critical infrastructure like power plants, water supplies, and similar sort of heavy infrastructure, critical infrastructure areas. And they could be hit, as long as they're network connected, as long as they have some kind of systems that interact with them that could be manipulated from internet connection.”

People Thinking Kind Long Water Internet Areas Connections Plant Heavy Connected Critical Infrastructure Supplies Cyber Power Plants Internet Connection Cyber Attacks

Author:Edward Snowden

“What has a great value to us as a nation is the internet itself. The internet is critical infrastructure to the United States. We use the internet for every communication that businesses rely on every day.”

States Use Values Nations United United States Communication Internet Critical Rely Infrastructure Great Value

Author:Edward Snowden

“If an adversary didn't target our power plants but they did target the core routers, the backbones that tie our internet connections together, entire parts of the United States could be cut off. That would have a tremendous impact on us as a society and it would have a policy backlash.”

Ifs States Together United United States Cutting Policy Internet Connections Impact Plant Core Ties Target Adversaries Backbone Backlash Power Plants Internet Connection

Author:Edward Snowden

“When we talk about computer network exploitation, computer network attack, we're not just talking about your home PC. We're talking about your cell phone, and we're also talking about internet routers themselves. The NSA is attacking the critical infrastructure of the internet to try to take ownership of it. They hack the routers that connect nations to the internet itself.”

Trying Home Nations Talking Internet Computer Phones Critical Cells Ownership Exploitation Infrastructure Attacking Cell Phone Nsa Hacks

Author:Edward Snowden

“We need to make sure that whenever we're engaging in a cyber-warfare campaign, a cyber-espionage campaign in the United States, that we understand the word cyber is used as a euphemism for the internet, because the American public would not be excited to hear that we're doing internet warfare campaigns, internet espionage campaigns, because we realize that we ourselves are impacted by it.”

Needs States Used Realizing United United States Internet Excited Campaigns Warfare Engaging Espionage Cyber Euphemism Cyber Warfare

Author:Edward Snowden

“The internet is shared critical infrastructure for everyone on earth. It's not supposed to be a domain of warfare. We're not supposed to be putting the Unied States' economy on the frontlines in the battleground.”

States Earth Economy Internet Critical Supposed To Be Warfare Infrastructure Domain Battleground Frontline

Author:Edward Snowden

“When you're attacking a router on the internet, and you're doing it remotely, it's like trying to shoot the moon with a rifle. Everything has to happen exactly right. Every single variable has to be controlled and precisely accounted for. And that's not possible to do when you have limited knowledge of the target you're attacking.”

Trying Happens Internet Moon Target Controlled Attacking Rifles Variables Limited Knowledge

Author:Edward Snowden

“The United States need to put internet processes, policies, and procedures in place with real laws that forbid going beyond the borders of what's reasonable to ensure that the only time that we and other countries around the world exercise these authorities are when it is absolutely necessary.”

“The internet exchange is sort of the core points where all of the international cables come together, where all of the internet service providers come together, and they trade lines with each other. These are priority one targets for any sort of espionage agency, because they provide access to so many people's communications.”

People Together Lines Communication Internet Trade International Access Priorities Core Agency Target Cables Espionage Providers Service Providers

Author:Edward Snowden

“Internet exchanges and internet service providers - international fiber optic landing points - these are the key tools that governments go after in order to enable their programs of mass surveillance. If they want to be able to watch the entire population of a country instead of a single individual, you have to go after those bulk interchanges.”

Ifs Want Country Government Able Order Individual Watches Keys Internet Mass Program Tools International Population Surveillance Landing Fiber Providers Interchange Service Providers

Author:Edward Snowden

“A zero-day exploit is a method of hacking a system. It's sort of a vulnerability that has an exploit written for it, sort of a key and a lock that go together to a given software package. It could be an internet web server. It could be Microsoft Office. It could be Adobe Reader or it could be Facebook.”

Together Given Written Keys Reader Internet Office Method Vulnerability Zero Software Locks Packages Exploits Microsoft Hacking Server

Author:Edward Snowden

“We should never allow computers to make inherently governmental decisions in terms of the application of military force, even if that's happening on the internet.”

Ifs Should Force Term Decision Military Internet Computer Happenings Application Military Force

Author:Edward Snowden

“Defending ourselves from internet-based attacks, internet-originated attacks, is much, much more important than our ability to launch attacks against similar targets in foreign countries.”

Important Country Ability Internet Target Foreign Countries

Author:Edward Snowden

“When it comes to the internet, when it comes to the United States' technical economy, we have more to lose than any other nation on earth.”

States Earth Nations Loses United United States Economy Internet

Author:Edward Snowden

“It's important to remember when you start doing things like attacking hospitals through the internet, when you start attacking things like internet exchange points, when something goes wrong, people can die. If a hospital's infrastructure is affected, lifesaving equipment turns off.”

People Ifs Important Remember Dies Turns Internet Affected Hospitals Equipment Remember When Infrastructure Attacking Turn Off

Author:Edward Snowden

“The internet is the most complex system that humans have ever invented. And with every internet enabled operation that we've seen so far, all of these offensive operations, we see knock on effects. We see unintended consequences.”

Humans Effects Internet Consequence Complexes Operations Offensive Complex Systems Unintended Consequences

Author:Edward Snowden

“The United States is more reliant on the technical systems. We're more reliant on the critical infrastructure of the internet than any other nation out there. And when there's such a low barrier to entering the domain of cyber-attacks we're starting a fight that we can't win.”

States Fighting Winning Nations United United States Internet Lows Starting Critical Barriers Entering Infrastructure Domain Can't Win Cyber Cyber Attacks

Author:Edward Snowden

“Every time we walk on to the field of battle and the field of battle is the internet, it doesn't matter if we shoot our opponents a hundred times and hit every time. As long as they've hit us once, we've lost, because the U.S. is so much more reliant on those systems.”

Ifs Long Matter Lost Walks Fields Internet Battle Hundred Opponents

Author:Edward Snowden

“The United States need to be focusing more on creating a more secure, more reliable, more robust, and more trusted internet, not one that's weaker, not one that relies on this systemic model of exploiting every vulnerability, every threat out there.”

Needs States United United States Internet Creating Models Threat Secure Vulnerability Rely Trusted Robust

Author:Edward Snowden

“Every time somebody on the internet sort of glances at us sideways, we launch an attack at them. That's not going to work out for us long term, and the U.S. have to get ahead of the problem if we're going to succeed.”

Ifs Long Problem Term Internet Succeed Work Out Long Term Glances Going To Work Get Ahead Sideways

Author:Edward Snowden

“The public don't want to authorize the internet to become a battleground. We need to do everything we can as a society to keep that a neutral zone, to keep that an economic zone that can reflect our values, both politically, socially, and economically.”

Want Needs Values Economic Internet Zone Battleground

Author:Edward Snowden

“Something we have to remember is that everything about the internet is interconnected. All of our systems are not just common to us because of the network links between them, but because of the software packages, because of the hardware devices that comprise it. The same router that's deployed in the United States is deployed in China.”

States Remember United Common United States Internet China Devices Links Software Packages Hardware Interconnected

Author:Edward Snowden

“There are proxies, proxy servers on the internet, and this is very typical for hackers to use. They create what are called proxy chains where they gain access to a number of different systems around the world, sometimes by hacking these, and they use them as sort of relay boxes.”

World Different Sometimes Use Numbers Internet Gains Boxes Access Chains Around The World Typical Hacking Hackers Server Proxy Relays

Author:Edward Snowden

“We need the security standards to apply to the internet. We need to be able to trust that when we send our emails through Verizon, that Verizon isn't sharing with the NSA, that Verizon isn't sharing them with the FBI or German intelligence or French intelligence or Russian intelligence or Chinese intelligence.”

Needs Able Security Internet Standards Chinese Email Fbi Nsa

Author:Edward Snowden

“The internet has to be protected from intrusive monitoring or else the medium upon which we all rely for the basis of our economy and our normal life, we'll lose that, and it's going to have broad effects as a consequence that we cannot predict.”

Loses Economy Effects Internet Normal Consequence Bases Mediums Rely Broads Protected Normal Life Monitoring

Author:Edward Snowden

“The community of technical experts who really manage the internet, who built the internet and maintain it, are becoming increasingly concerned about the activities of agencies like the NSA or Cyber Command, because what we see is that defense is becoming less of a priority than offense.”

Community Becoming Internet Activity Built Concerned Defense Priorities Command Manage Experts Agency Offense Nsa Cyber

Author:Edward Snowden

“I went to a website the other day and right at the top of the page it showed me my ip address. It was the most disturbing moment I have ever experienced. This website even told me what internet browser I was using, and what day it was. Computers can do anything.”

Moments Can Do Internet Computer Pages Addresses Disturbing Website Browsers

Author:Edward Snowden

“I would say the first key concept is that, in terms of technological and communication progress in human history, the Internet is basically the equivalent of electronic telepathy. We can now communicate all the time through our little magic smartphones with people who are anywhere, all the time, constantly learning what they're thinking, talking about, exchanging messages. And this is a new capability even within the context of the Internet.”

“When people talk about Web 2.0, they mean that when the Internet, the World Wide Web, first became popular, it was one way only.”

People World Way Firsts Mean Internet Wide One Way World Wide Web Web 2.0

Author:Edward Snowden

“What we're seeing now, or starting to see, is an atomization of the Internet community. Before, everybody went only to a few sites; now we've got all these boutiques.”

Community Seeing Internet Starting Site

Author:Edward Snowden

“I describe it as tribalism because they're very tightly woven communities. Lack of civility is part of it, because that's how Internet tribes behave. We see this more and more in electoral politics, which have become increasingly poisonous.”

Community Internet Behave Tribes Civility Woven Poisonous Tribalism

Author:Edward Snowden

“All this is a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because it helps people establish what they value; they understand the sort of ideas they identify with. The curse is that they aren't challenged in their views. The Internet becomes an echo chamber. Users don't see the counterarguments.”

People Ideas Helping Values Views Internet Blessing Curse Users Echoes Chamber Counterarguments

Author:Edward Snowden

“I think we're going to see a move away from that, because young people - digital natives who spend their life on the Internet - get saturated. It's like a fashion trend, and becomes a sign of a lack of sophistication.”

People Thinking Moving Young Fashion Internet Digital Trends Sophistication Saturated Fashion Trends

Author:Edward Snowden

“On the other hand, the Internet is there to fill needs that people have for information and socialization. We get this sort of identification thing going on nowadays because it's a very fractious time. We live in a time of troubles.”

People Needs Hands Trouble Information Internet Identification Socialization Times Of Trouble

Author:Edward Snowden

“Where are we going to reject that easy but flawed process of letting the intelligence services do whatever they want? It's inevitable that it will happen. I think it's going to be where Internet businesses go.”

Thinking Want Happens Easy Process Internet Inevitable Rejects Flawed Intelligence Services Internet Business

Author:Edward Snowden

“[Sovereignty] would break the American monopoly, but it would also break Internet business, because you'd have to have a data center in every country. And data centers are tremendously expensive, a big capital investment.”

Country Bigs Break Internet Investment Data Expensive Sovereignty Monopoly Capital Investment Internet Business Data Centers

Author:Edward Snowden

“I know that fundamentally, changes to the fabric of the internet, and sort of our methods of communication, can enforce our rights.”

Knows Rights Communication Internet Method Fabric

Author:Edward Snowden

“You have to remember the way the internet works, when you communicate with the server, it's very likely not in your country. It's somewhere else in the world.”

World Way Country Remember Internet Communicate Somewhere Else Server

Author:Edward Snowden

“By leaning on companies, by leaning on infrastructure providers, by leaning on researchers, graduate students, post-docs, even undergrads, to look at the challenges having an untrusted internet, where we have to put our communications on wires that are owned by a phone company that we can't trust, that's working in collaboration with a government that we can't trust, in areas around the world, we can restructure that communications fabric in a way that it's encrypted.”

“Imagine, if you will, you're sitting at my desk in Hawaii. You have access to the entire world, as far as you can see it. Last several days, content of internet communications. Every email that's sent. Every website that's visited by every individual. Every text message that somebody sends on their phone. Every phone call they make.”

Ifs World Lasts Individual Imagine Communication Internet Messages Sitting Phones Access Desks Email Hawaii Website Phone Calls Text Message

Author:Edward Snowden

“Since the revelations, we have seen a massive sea change in the technological basis and makeup of the Internet.”

Sea Internet Bases Revelations Makeup Massive Technological Sea Change

Author:Edward Snowden

“I'm not a politician, and I do not think I am as effective in this way as people who actually prepare for it - is to focus on technical reform, because I speak the language of technology. I spoke with Tim Berners-Lee, the guy who invented the World Wide Web. We agree on the necessity for this generation to create what he calls the Magna Carta for the Internet. We want to say what "digital rights" should be. What values should we be protecting, and how do we assert them.”

“I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building.”

People World I Can Government Liberty Building Internet Conscience Machines Around The World Privacy Massive Surveillance Nsa Government Spying Internet Freedom Government Surveillance

Author:Edward Snowden

“The majority of people in developed countries spend at least some time interacting with the Internet, and Governments are abusing that necessity in secret to extend their powers beyond what is necessary and appropriate.”

People Country Government Secret Internet Majority Appropriate Interacting Developed Country Government Spying

Author:Edward Snowden

About the Author

Born: June 21, 1983
Known for: System Administrator
Quotes: 491

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Books & Sources

Permanent RecordRelated source material

Edward Snowden: The Internet Is BrokenRelated source material

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