Cyberworld After Snowden

• In Event: Roundtable: Radicalization and Terrorism

Abstract

This research oscillates around a crucial issue in the United States stemming from the activity of the state-owned or state-controlled entities overseeing our activity in cyberspace. The core of the debate is on the constitutionality of state actions, and the shifting boundaries in which the state can act in the name of security, in an effort to protect its people—and hence the nation-state— from its enemies. A second piece of this debate is which state actors and agencies can control the mechanisms by which this sensitive cyber information is collected, stored, and if needed, acted upon. The most salient case in regards to this debate is that of Edward Snowden revealing the U.S. government’s abuses of this surveillance machinery prompting major debates around the topics of privacy, national security, and mass digital surveillance. This paper will discuss cyber-intelligence reforms in response to Snowden’s revelations and whether these are in fact practical in modern, high-technology societies such as the United States.

Author

• Emanuel Boussios, Hofstra University