Is there any end in sight to the salacious details released by Wikileaks or the contentious claims made by former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden? Scarcely a week goes by without some new allegation or exposé by these self-styled heroes of the common citizen charged with blowing the cover off secrecy, protecting our collective privacy and demonstrating to the world how evil intelligence agencies are. The latest Wikileaks promise to share CIA hacking tools with technology companies is but the latest example of this form of do-goodism.
Many praise these pioneers for their actions which are not without risk: extradition, arrest, trial and incarceration. There is no question that what they have done and continue to do is gutsy and it is not hard to see why some see these as Davids in a world of intelligence Goliaths.
Not surprisingly, agencies such as the CIA have bemoaned the damage that these leaks have done but I am sure there are those who would dismiss this as sour grapes. There is, however, justified concern over what has been disclosed and it is quite obvious that we are less safe as a result. It may be heroic for Wikileaks to graciously inform Apple and Samsung of the weaknesses exploited by the CIA for that protects average joes and their privacy but everyone seems to forget that some pretty nasty characters, from organised crime figures to terrorists, also use that technology. Closed loopholes and back doors may raise our security generally speaking but the bad guys also benefit and our security intelligence and law enforcement agencies are less capable of finding and tracking them.
The CIA and its ilk should be the least of our worries. Technology giants like Google know a lot more about you than the CIA ever will and that knowledge is collected and kept solely for economic exploitation.
Although the leaks concern American spy agencies – NSA and the CIA – there are nevertheless lessons for Canada. Firstly, the latest information about CIA hacking is believed to have been leaked by a contract employee at the CIA. Snowden was also a contractee and the US intelligence community is rife with them. We here in Canada rely less crucially on these types of employees and our intelligence services should think twice before hiring more. Yes, full-time staff can also break the rules but they are also inherently more trustworthy and perhaps better vetted. It is more expensive to have permanent staff but is it not better to be secure than penny wise and pound foolish?
Public trust in CSIS, CSE and the RCMP appears to be eroding. Stories over ‘illegal’ data storage by CSIS, CSE’s collection of Canadian telephone numbers and the RCMP’s entrapment of two people in the 2013 Victoria Legislature plot have led some Canadians to assume that our protectors have gone rogue and are breaking the law. This trust has to be re-established and this can be achieved in part by having the heads of these agencies become a little more open with Canadians on what they do and why they do it. There will always be issues that are off the table – methods, sources and ongoing operations – but there is much to gain by entering into a mature dialogue with our citizens. A lack of information leads to speculation, pseudo expertise and myths. A little more transparency can help restore some of that lost confidence.
A lack of information leads to speculation, pseudo expertise and myths. A little more transparency can help restore some of that lost confidence.
We need a much wider conversation on privacy. The CIA and its ilk should be the least of our worries. Technology giants like Google know a lot more about you than the CIA ever will and that knowledge is collected and kept solely for economic exploitation. Are we as Canadians ok with that? Or is privacy over-rated? Let’s talk about this.
Spy agencies exist for a reason. Some have indeed been used to keep tabs on their citizens and to abuse those citizens. While we in the West are not perfect, it is nevertheless true that the CSIS’, CSEs and RCMPs among us are here to keep us safe. They do so to a degree of professionalism and dedication not often recognised, warts and all. It is time to acknowledge the good they do and not focus solely on the alleged bad.
Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are painted as courageous whistleblowers and maybe they are to some extent. Yet there is little in life that is uniquely positive and this goes as well for the smashers of secrets. It is time for a much more nuanced discussion on intelligence leaks.
