What was Edward Snowden like before he ended up being a whistleblower? For Edward Snowden, life took a turn when he learned about mass surveillance. What was his childhood and real life like before that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Edward Snowden, childhood exposed him to computers and public service. His interests in technology started young and carried him into his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Learn more about Edward Snowden, life as a child and teenager, and how he ended up in public service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Edward, who\u2019s referred to as \u201cEd\u201d throughout the book, was born in 1983, the same year as the public Internet. Growing up, Ed was fascinated by technology. He first encountered video games when he was six and his family got a home computer when he was nine. By age 12, his goal was to spend as much time on the Internet as possible.
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There were a lot of technology changes during the life of Edward Snowden. Childhood for Snowden included an internet that was a different entity than it is today. The early Internet was mainly used by people (rather than governments or businesses), it wasn\u2019t monetized, and it was anonymous.<\/strong> Ed\u2014and everyone\u2014had tremendous freedom online. For Edward Snowden, childhood became challenging as he moved into his teenage years. He began to question authority and got into hacking.<\/strong> His most notable achievement was discovering a security hole on the website of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a US nuclear facility. In freshman year of high school, Ed\u2019s parents divorced, and in sophomore year, he came down with mononucleosis. He became too ill to even use the computer and missed so much school he was told he\u2019d have to repeat the year. Ed absolutely did not want to do this, so he \u201chacked\u201d the school system\u2014he discovered he didn\u2019t actually need a high school diploma to attend college, so he applied to Anne Arundel Community College and was accepted. For Edward Snowden, life was good when he was in college classes. He enjoyed them more than he\u2019d enjoyed his high school ones. He made friends with a group of people in his Japanese class and one of them, Mae, owned a web design business. She hired Ed to work for her. Ed was infatuated with Mae, even though she was older and married, and enjoyed working with her even though the actual work was sometimes repetitive. If he wanted to keep working in tech, he knew he\u2019d have to acquire a professional certification, so he tested for his Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) For Edward Snowden, life changed on September 11, 2001. Ed had never felt more patriotic or American and decided to serve. He didn\u2019t have enough qualifications to be a hacker for an intelligence agency, and computers were easy for him and he wanted to do something harder. Therefore, he joined the army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nEdward Snowden: Life as a Teenager<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nLife and Career<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n