It has recently been reported that a Russian computer geek was able to crack the encryption code used by Edward Snowden to protect his massive cache’ of U.S. NSA files.  According to reports both Russia and China had been working for a long time to break the encryption and discover the full scope of the data Snowden removed from the NSA downloads.

edward-snowden(Via Daily Mail) MI6 has pulled its spies out of ‘hostile countries’ and America’s intelligence agencies are on high alert after Russia and China cracked encrypted files leaked by fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The top-secret documents contain information that could lead to the identification of British and American spies, according to senior officials in Downing Street, the Home Office and the security services.

A senior Home Office official accused Snowden – the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor responsible for the biggest confidential information leak in US history – of having ‘blood on his hands’ after they gained access to over one million files.

Security services have reported increasing difficulties in tracking terrorists and dangerous criminals via email, chat rooms and social media since he exposed Western intelligence-gathering methods, the Sunday Times reports.

Now aides in British Prime Minister David Cameron’s office have confirmed the top-secret material is now in the hands of spy chiefs in Moscow and Beijing.

A senior Downing Street source told the Sunday Times: ‘It is the case that Russians and Chinese have information.

‘It has meant agents have had to be moved and that knowledge of how we operate has stopped us getting vital information.’

A British intelligence source added: ‘Snowden has done incalculable damage. In some cases the agencies have been forced to intervene and lift their agents from operations to prevent them from being identified and killed.  (read more)

It might sound weird to bring a John Oliver video into this discussion. However, Oliver does something rather necessary in his April 2015 show regarding the Snowden NSA revelations – he reaches an audience that doesn’t spend time educating themselves of the inherent issues at hand.

Oliver hosted this discussion in April and includes an interview with Edward Snowden. Again, don’t get hung up on the locker room humor, unfortunately in these type of presentations it is entirely needed to bridge the gap between a disconnected and apathetic electorate, and an issue of profound significance.

Oliver lays out the backstory, then the Snowden interview segment begins at 14:00:

*side note* if you doubt the effectiveness of the Oliver approach, consider this video was seen via u-tube by 7.2 million people.  Andrew Breitbart understood the value of, and importance of, this type of pop-culture message delivery.
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