I am a Big Player
Chapter 493 - 487. Exposing the Prism Program (3rd Update for Monthly Votes)_1

Chapter 493: 487. Exposing the Prism Program (3rd Update for Monthly Votes)_1

When Ren He arrived home, he was already drenched in sweat. Thankfully, microblogging was just beginning to take off. If this had happened in his past life, any random photo of him posted on microblogging could have led to him being exposed within minutes.

That day, he would have made the headlines: "Qinghe’s Big Boss Starts from Trafficking Humans"!

The nature of his current tasks made Ren He quite hesitant to write casually, even with two mission exemption rights in hand, because the missions used to exchange for those exemptions couldn’t themselves be exempted.

What to do? He could only bite the bullet and write. It wasn’t just Zhang Ming who anticipated the arrival of the last two volumes, but also the multitude of readers who had been waiting, and acquiring the title of Martial Arts Master wasn’t too shabby for Ren He either.

However, Ren He planned to return to Luo City after finishing the final volume of the Ling Fei Script, as he had some matters to take care of with Xu Nuo.

This matter revolved around whether he could get back at the US government for messing with him, and since it was all because of the PRISM program, why not expose it!

In reality, many people are oblivious to such issues before they occur, as if the secrecy is incredibly tight, but having gone through such an experience in his past life, Ren He understood that there were numerous loopholes!

Is the United States’ cybersecurity truly impenetrable? Not in the slightest.

In fact, both before and after Snowden, there had been several incidents involving US cybersecurity, with the Rod. Martin case being one of the most significant.

Rod. Martin was dubbed "the second Snowden" because he worked for contractors for various US government and security departments. According to US prosecutors, from August 1996, Martin continually stole classified intelligence from the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the US Cyber Command, among other agencies. Martin stored around 50TB of confidential files and data in his residence and vehicle. The space was sufficient to hold 500 million documents, including images and text, potentially marking it as the largest theft of government secrets in US history.

The classified documents included National Security Agency briefs and reports containing sensitive content, such as the agency’s 2009 methods and procedures for safeguarding American intelligence. Moreover, Martin stored massive amounts of secret files from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Cyber Command, including intelligence collection satellite launches and plans and actions for targeting terrorist suspects.

Looking at Martin, individuals like him are quite common within the US security contractor system. Martin was once a member of the National Security Agency’s "top-tier hacker team," tasked with developing and using software to infiltrate foreign computer systems and exfiltrate intelligence.

He was a top-notch hacker. Obtaining cyber intelligence from them wasn’t something Xu Nuo could achieve.

This was a hacker who truly operated within the network, and the information was stored on hard drives, completely isolated from any network access.

Such methods of hiding intelligence might seem safe to a hacker, but they overlooked one thing—the method of physical searches...

Martin wasn’t an isolated case within the US security contractor system. Following his incident, the National Security Agency investigated nearly 900 cybersecurity consultants and found that 27 employees had hoarded a significant amount of intelligence, threatening not only America’s reputation but also its domestic security.

Because among the hoarded were details of numerous satellite launches and information on missile deployment, military positioning...

Due to these occurrences, the National Security Agency finally decided to dismiss 1129 cybersecurity consultants in a bid to protect themselves...

Ren He was not knowledgeable about hacking and had no intention to master top-level hacking techniques through the Divine Punishment System. The adversaries were also masters; acquiring such expertise would only put him on par with them.

If Ren He thought that the Divine Punishment System made him invincible, that would be naive.

For instance, if Ren He, without exceptional physical fitness and various potions, tried to fight Lin Hao, the outcome would be uncertain because Lin Hao was also a fighting master proficient with a dagger.

In the network, once both parties became equal opponents, Ren He did not expect to control the entire cyber world. It wasn’t realistic, and the Divine Punishment System was not foolish.

Nevertheless, Ren He still had a way to take revenge on the US government for all they did when they hunted him down!

What Ren He needed Xu Nuo to do was to locate all the cybersecurity contractors under the National Security Agency, find the names and addresses of these employees, and the rest would be much simpler.

Steve, the big thief, was still in Ren He’s grasp...

When Ren He returned a while ago, he transferred 5 million US Dollars to Steve, not counting the money he had already given on the boat, providing another full five million US Dollars as thanks. Steve was currently vacationing in Hawaii with his wife and kids, living an easy life.

The two had unexpectedly become friends.

Although it felt somewhat unseemly to threaten Steve with his secret, Ren He still intended to make this trade with Steve. These security employees lacked formal counter-espionage training, and most of their homes had no protective measures. Otherwise, a former employee wouldn’t have exposed much by a mere home burglary...

Thinking about it, Ren He might find the US government a bit foolish for all these things that had actually happened, but he didn’t feel that he would be much better than them if he were in that situation.

Context is everything, and in that situation, perhaps there were many things that could be overlooked.

Ren He had to use Steve. He didn’t want to become too entangled with Skydrive, although they were surely eager to get their hands on the stolen intelligence, and Yang En would want it too. However, Ren He refused to let his actions of vengeance become a political tool for any side.

As a humble patriot, Ren He had his own ways of expressing nationalism, and he didn’t even intend to reveal his identity.

After the sniping incident in New York, at best, he was just a sniper. The National Security Agency had problematic motives to begin with, and if something went wrong, they were the ones at fault. As time passed, the issue faded away.

People would selectively forget because Yang En’s initial motive was also to harm America’s public safety, and the US had no evidence.

If the exposure of the PRISM program was linked to Ren He, not only would he be barred from visiting the US, traveling abroad might become a significant problem for life.

A sniper residing in China and a person capable of threatening America’s public safety at any moment are two different issues.

Ren He still had many extreme sports to pursue abroad...

Far away in Hawaii, Steve had an ominous hunch when he saw Ren He’s phone call...

...

A supplementary update for the fragrant alliance leader of the farmers.