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"While Edward Snowden is still stuck somewhere inside Moscow's Sheremyetevo airport, details about his past keep emerging. \nIn 2010, while working at Dell as an National Security Agency contractor, Snowden earned a certificate as an \"ethical hacker,\" and learned some of the skills that most likely helped him siphon off the top secret documents that have revealed multiple NSA surveillance programs over the last month.\nSEE ALSO: Edward Snowden Requests Asylum in 21 Countries: Their Responses\n\nAccording to the New York Times, Snowden took a course and received a certification from the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council) as a \"Certified Ethical Hacker.\" \nAs the EC-Council's website explains, a Certified Ethical Hacker is one who tests the security of networks and computer systems to find holes and vulnerabilities to help companies fix them. \nThe EC-Council took a page from Sun Tzu's playbook. The great Chinese author of The Art of War famously said that \"to know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy\" \u2014 which is exactly what Snowden learned. \n\"To beat a hacker, you need to think like one!\" reads the EC-Council's website. \"To master the hacking technologies, you will need to become one.\" \nAs part of his training as an ethical hacker, Snowden studied the ways malicious hackers penetrate networks to compromise them and cover their tracks. Ethical hackers have a code of honor that compels them to keep what they discover secret and confidential. \nHis certification as a ethical hacker was listed on the resume he sent to Booz Allen Hamilton, a security and defense consulting firm that has a number of government contracts, including one with the NSA. Snowden allegedly downloaded the trove of NSA top secret documents on a thumb drive while working for Booz Allen Hamilton at an NSA facility in Hawaii.\nDuring his years working for the CIA and for NSA contractors, Snowden was first a \"defensive\" hacker and then an \"offensive\" one, learning how to break into networks and becoming a cybersecurity expert. As the Times notes, he became the type of hacker that U.S. agencies such as the NSA particularly covet: somebody who knows how to make a network secure because he is skilled at breaking into insecure networks. \nImage via Kay Nietfeld/AFP/Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/07/05/snowden-ethical-hacker/>