[dropcap size=small]O[/dropcap]ne of the most prominent figures of the decade who is diversely known as a hero, a whistle blower, a patriot by some and a traitor by others, Edward Snowden former National Security Agency subcontractor who came into limelight in 2013 after leaking top secret files about NSA’s mass surveillance activities.
Credits : Wired
Snowden was born on 21st June, 1983 in Maryland suburbs coincidentally not very far away from NSA headquarters. He was passionate for computers since childhood, he was not able to continue his schooling after 10th grade because of mononucleosis which forced him to stay away from school for around 9 months. [highlight ]Later on, he directly got admitted into a community college where he started working for tech company owned by one of his classmates.[/highlight]
Snowden life turned upside-down after 9/11 attacks and he stepped forward for serving Army special forces in the year 2004 when American-Iraq war was fueling up. His journey at security agencies began as a security guard, and worked for many top posts ranging from junior man on the top computer team at CIA to the lead technologist for the information-sharing office at Dell while working for NSA during which he discovered the dark secret of NSA which shook his very belief that a government never lies to its people.
[highlight ]He disclosed thousands of secret files which he has been collecting for years, it was one of the most serious security breach in the history of the NSA[/highlight], and USA booked Edward Snowden under the Espionage Act. It was because of him only that USA government was forced to pass USA freedom act which would restrict secret services to violate privacy rights of any individual. A documentary based on story of Edward Snowden, Citizenfour won an Oscar in the year 2015.
Edward Snowden should be acknowledged as people’s informer, a true hero who refused to accept what was going on in the world’s one of the most powerful and impregnable organisation for years, and exposed them by putting his life on the line giving up his career, his life, his homeland and almost everything he owned.