00:00A single person showed the stars to a superpower like America in broad daylight.
00:05In 2013, he stole more than 1 million dollars top secret documents of America and exposed them to the world.
00:13Since then, he has been America's most wanted criminal for the last 11 years.
00:18But despite doing so much damage to the American government, today the world looks at him as a hero.
00:24But why did he steal the documents of the world's top secret agency?
00:28Why did he leak them and how did he escape America's grift even after all this?
00:33Once again, welcome to World Stories Videos.
00:36The morning sun of June 6th, 2013 brought a big problem for the American government.
00:42It was then that a series of news was published in the Guardian and the Washington Post
00:47which contained the raw details of the top secret documents of the
00:51National Security Agency.
00:54These documents not only exposed the secrets of the government, but also exposed the secrets of the government.
01:00Americans, in fact, mobile users around the world were shocked
01:04when they found out that the American government is secretly monitoring every mobile user.
01:09In these documents, the NSA's secret program prism was exposed.
01:14A secret program that the U.S. government has ordered to access the data of millions of risen customers.
01:20Risen is a mobile operator in America, just like India and Pakistan.
01:25The security agency hacked the computers of Hong Kong and China's military.
01:30It tapped Angela Merkel's phone, who was Germany's chancellor at the time.
01:35The British government communication headquarters GCHQ was running a program to keep an eye on its citizens.
01:42The leaked document revealed a conversation between the NSA and GCHQ
01:47in which both the agencies were looking for ways to deceive people and keep the propagandists happy.
01:53Initially, no one knew that this document was being used.
01:57Who leaked these and are they really true or not because news agencies are not bound to reveal the source of their news,
02:04but just three days after this a person comes forward who takes responsibility of leaking these top secret documents.
02:1029-year-old Edward Snowden, who was a high school dropout, started his career in U.S. military,
02:16but after one year he was discharged from there and in 2005 he got appointed as security guard of Maryland University.
02:24Edward Snowden was not good in studies, but his computer skills were so strong that the CIA hired him.
02:30After spending a few years with the CIA in 2009 American tech giant Dell hired him.
02:37At that time Dell also had a contract to upgrade the computer systems of the National Security Agency
02:43and hence they put Edward on this project where initially his role was of supervisor and later he became cyber strategist.
02:50Edward Snowden was a diamond in the rough for the CIA and NSA,
02:55then what happened next that he was called a traitor by these agencies?
02:59Actually, there was an incident behind Edward's transformation from a cyber strategist to a traitor.
03:05While operating and upgrading NSA's computers,
03:08Edward came to know that the National Security Agency has the power to access the personal data of any mobile user.
03:15He also saw some records, which at first he thought might be the records of international criminals,
03:20but in reality these were not criminals but peace-loving citizens of America.
03:25During that time a debate was going on in the U.S. Congress on the issue of intelligence.
03:31Ron Wyden, who is an American politician, asked a question to the director of the National Security Agency, James Clapper,
03:39in front of the Congress whether your agency collects the data of Americans or not.
03:44This session of the Congress was broadcast on national television as well.
03:48James Clapper said in front of crores of people that no, our work is only to collect data of Americans.
03:55Edward Snowden, who was a foreign intelligence agent at that time, was shocked to see his director lying on television.
04:02He got so angry that after three days he left his job at Dell, where he was earning $2 million annually.
04:09In 2013 he left Dell and joined Booz Allen Hamilton, which worked for the U.S. military, CIA, and NSA.
04:18Here also he was put on a project by the NSA.
04:22The National Security Agency says that Edward has stolen so many files from our system that it is difficult to even estimate them
04:29because their number can be more than $20 million.
04:33But what did Edward do that he copied the files of the top secret agency, that too without anyone knowing?
04:39The surprising thing is that he did not use any complicated hacking tools for this work,
04:44rather all this work was done from a small USB drive.
04:48But in the end how because in normal offices USB drives are especially banned due to fear of data theft.
04:55Secondly, in any company's system where confidential data is stored, not every employee has the authority to access the data.
05:03After all, these were the computers of the National Security Agency whose security is unbreakable.
05:09Edward Snowden planned his escape before doing this and took advantage of his location
05:14because he was hired by Booz Allen Hamilton for the NSA project.
05:18That is why he was kept in Hawaii, 5,000 miles away from the NSA's Maryland headquarters.
05:25Hawaii is six hours behind Maryland, which means that when Edward Snowden was in his Hawaii office, he would have to go to the airport.
05:33While I was working, everyone used to go to the NSA headquarters.
05:37The second advantage was that he had access to the servers of the NSA headquarters through the thin client system, which was actually outdated.
05:45The third advantage was that Edward himself was the system administrator there,
05:49which means his profile had high security clearance, which meant that he had more rights,
05:54which means he could copy data from any system without being noticed.
05:58Edward Snowden took advantage of this very thing and copied more than two million files from 5,000 miles away without being noticed.
06:06After working for just four weeks in the Hawaii office, Edward decided to expose the misdeeds of the NSA to the world.
06:14He copied all the documents onto a USB drive.
06:18He cleverly hid the drive from the security guard and went out and took leave by making an excuse of illness.
06:25He switched off his number and went straight from Hawaii to Hong Kong.
06:29But when he did not return for the next several days and neither his number was ringing, the NSA got suspicious and started looking for him.
06:37After reaching Hong Kong, he met some trusted journalists, gave them the documents,
06:42and then the same documents became the headlines of the world the next day.
06:47The leaked documents of Edward Snowden started a new debate on the secret powers of the NSA all over the world.
06:53He was accused of stealing government property, entering the systems of national security without permission,
06:59and giving top secret information to unauthorized people.
07:03Also, the American government demanded from Hong Kong that Edward be handed over to us,
07:08but he too had planned every step in advance.
07:12By then, he took a ship and went to Russia where initially he got asylum and then,
07:16in September 2022 Putin tipped Ruchira, is in which he told how our phones spy on us.
07:22He mentioned a tool named NoSmuff which accesses the microphone of our phone.
07:27Security agencies so that they can listen to the surrounding sounds without any obstruction.
07:33Some people consider Edward Snowden a traitor, while some believe that he is a hero who exposed the real face of NSA in front of the world.
07:41What is your opinion about this?
07:44Do tell me in the comment section.
07:47I hope you will like and share this video.
07:50Thank you very much for your loving comments.
07:53See you in the next great video.
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