Institutions will soon be laid bare by records of their own making and I can already see some level of panic developing.
Releases of declassified (un-redacted) intelligence documents detailing major data breaches will detail how America’s citizen data has been compromised during an era where government, corporate, and media entities all told the American public, everything is fine.
Those same government officials who insisted on total deference to classified programs are going to see their own classified programs’ failures to protect even the most basic forms of U.S. citizen data detailed in upcoming declassified intelligence releases.
There is a consistent pattern here: tout a new surveillance program as being absolutely necessary for safety; then cover-up evidence that shows millions of citizen records were leaked anyway. This time the newly released declassified documents remove the typical excuse related to national security redactions.
Another less often discussed perspective is that these massive data breaches expose the true function of never-ending classifications -- not to safeguard sensitive source material, but to hide bureaucratic ineptitude and favoritism towards certain politicians.
Additionally, the upcoming transparency will require the nation’s intelligence agencies to confront how they prioritized surveillance of political adversaries versus securing the nation’s systems from hostile nations stealing U.S. data.
Will the American public continue to accept “we cannot comment on an active investigation” as sufficient explanation regarding why their personal data was stolen?
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.