Snowden Perfected His Craft In India; He Sure Learnt A Lot!

Silicon Valley may claim its fair share of fame, but the world knows that the ‘easily available and economical’ (read: qualified cheap labour) Indian technicians sorted out the Y2K problem when the world’s systems threatened to shut down and wipe off all existing data.

The world sat up and took notice. From then on, India has been gaining its space in the tech world, slowly but surely, and it is definitely here to stay. The world came to India for tech solutions and got the best goods delivered. The Silicon Valley in the US hatched some super cool business ideas that found addresses, office space and workforce on the faraway shores of India.

All sorts of institutions found their tech fuel from India. Governments across the world trusted the software developed in Indian cities to serve their purpose and retain confidentiality. Now, it also seems that the espionage agencies found India to be the best tech trainer. By this time, the cat is out of the bag and we all know that Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who is now living in Russia, trained at a Delhi-based top training institute that teaches hacking.

In what seems to be a preparation for the subsequent hacking Snowden carried out at CIA, creating long-standing embarrassment for the US after he revealed the country’s Internet surveillance to the world, the former agent took a course in ‘ethical hacking’ lasting for about six days, in 2010.

Koenig Institute in Delhi certified Snowden as a ‘certified ethical hacker’ at the end of the course. After returning from the institute, Snowden seemed to have quietly accessed all the secret data that flowed through the tech-nerves, brimming with data from across the world, including the chunk from the US. During his routine renewal of the top secret security clearance, Snowden remained mum about the new skill he had acquired during his last visit to India.

It is an irony that the country, which has been tracking every move of its citizens, didn’t deem it important to track its own agents and details of their visits to certain places. Soon after the clearance was issued, Snowden gained access to about 1.7 million classified files that he copied from the agency’s network and databases.

In an attempt to cover up a glaring error on its part, the US government blacklisted the agency that conducted Snowden’s background check for ‘not conducting the necessary procedures and finding appropriate facts (enough to have nailed him sooner).’ The agency was told the check was ‘flawed and incomplete.’ But this was much after the US, deemed as the world’s strongest nation, had lost its face owing to its agent’s spilling of beans regarding the country’s nervous surveillance programmes across the world.

Experts believe Snowden’s India visit should not have been too difficult to track since he made no attempts to hide his identity during that visit. Not only that, Snowden apparently made no bones about his work assignment with the NSA and paid all the fees and necessary expenses using his personal credit card. Pretty traceable, ah? And why did the US authorities let him be without questioning his motive to visit Delhi and spending time at what is listed as an A-line institute that runs courses in hacking?

What’s more, the former agent who had fled the US after revealing to the world about the country’s fixation with data and spying on international leaders, reached the Koenig Institute to ‘assist as a technical expert’ at the US embassy in New Delhi.

Now with the spats between India and the US reaching new heights, thanks to diplomat Devyani Khobragade and her domestic help Sangeeta Richard, the Snowden saga is sure to have its impact on the already strained ties. A tit-for-tat game has been on for quite a while and it will be interesting to watch how the US handles the Snowden saga from further tarnishing the image of its security agency without rubbing too many things the wrong way. Will India own up to the responsibility or shirk and move on? This sure will be an indicator for the future of both countries.