Tech doesn't exist in a vacuum disconnected from the world, it's constantly interacting with society as the two evolve with and by eachother. It has the power to fundamentally alter the world, the most grandiose among programmers and entrepreneurs will even voice that as a goal.
Large scale monitoring of computerized communication infrastructure. The cat and mouse implementation of crypto technologies in response. The ethos of the people on the forefront of computer privacy. The fact that the leaker was a sysadmin. All these dots connect to form a larger story that is just as much about tech in society as it is politics. This article in specific and Snowden's leaks in general may be more on the social side, but is still a component of the larger story that is fundamental to tech.
This is a defining moment in history, one which will shape the digital environment in which we all operate for decades to come. By the time the last echoes have fades HTTP and SMTP will likely no longer exist, every last bit of every communication will be encrypted and the general public will be about as paranoid as the most tinfoil hat type of 2 years ago.
All it takes for that to be the case is a few more things to happen:
- someone leaks a substantial body of cleartext records on citizens
- ditto on some foreign head of state / politician / judge
- ditto on an American politician
The term 'plaintext' will be as antiquated as 'morse'. Still occasionally in use but not for anything that matters. Intelligence agencies will be reduced to traffic analysis and likely not even that with a vast chunk of the internet simply going dark, either as a mesh network or in some other decentralized fashion where there are no more supernodes such as Mae-East, Mae-West and Front 151.
The other alternative is not so much fun so I won't outline that here. There is a good reason why 'may you live in interesting times' is considered a curse.
The fall-out from this will affect every hacker, every start-up and likely every company operating at the moment with even a peripheral interface with the digital world, which is probably all of them.
It's really not a defining moment, in any sense of the word.
Same old, same old.
In actual fact though, The independent has stated that it wasn't leaked anything by the government, so the original post is moot. This is no better than gossip about celebrities.
So governments monitor the internet. Wouldn't it be really bizarre if they didn't monitor the internet?
Large scale monitoring of computerized communication infrastructure. The cat and mouse implementation of crypto technologies in response. The ethos of the people on the forefront of computer privacy. The fact that the leaker was a sysadmin. All these dots connect to form a larger story that is just as much about tech in society as it is politics. This article in specific and Snowden's leaks in general may be more on the social side, but is still a component of the larger story that is fundamental to tech.