(Edits: Snowden's actual salary has been corrected to $120K, the title of the diary has changed, and it is here specifically stated by the author that any and all of this essay may be quoted and freely distributed as desired. It is a public document.)
Pardon, but we need to clear up something in everyone's discussions of Edward Snowden.
Snowden's actual job title was "infrastructure analyst." Booz Allen was openly recruiting for the position, which Snowden took a pay cut to accept. Most likely everyone figured it was because he and his girlfriend wanted to live in Hawaii. It was actually because Edward wanted to be in a role where he could freely access top security clearance data proving the NSA's nasty habit of data vacuuming on every living soul within reach, everywhere in the world.
What does an infrastructure analyst do? Well, at an ordinary company that manufactures widgets or can openers, an infrastructure analyst is one of a team of guys who have their hands on the very heart of the company network 24/7. Between them they keep it up and running, back it up, fix problems and disasters as they happen, and implement upgrades and new rollouts of software.
They see to the implementation of network policies across the board, flag violations or intrusions from within or without, set up new systems when the need arises, and if they're any good they test the system for flaws and weak points.
They often do a bit of coding to improve server performance or to trace leaks, or to test network security. Some are better at this kind of testing than others. Snowden was not just good on the keyboard, he was amazing and gifted, by all reports. Which is where and how all the trouble started.
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