Re:Obama refuses to barter over Snowden
by cube13 on Thursday June 27, 2013 @05:37PM
(#5954887)
To be clear, I'm not saying that he's given out the keys to any country. However, I'm not sure that really matters right now.
Realistically, the data in there probably isn't all that time-sensitive. It's not like we're in an active war with Russia and Snowden took copies of an upcoming US invasion plan with him there. In that case, two things would matter: if the Russians had the data, and whether they had cracked the encryption. However, in this case, the data Snowden has is useful as a general "What do they know" exercise. This is data that will remain interesting for the Russians and Chinese even if it takes months to crack. So, at this point, it is a problem for the US if the Russians are just in possession of it, even encrypted. It's just another bargaining chip that they have.
Realistically, the data in there probably isn't all that time-sensitive. It's not like we're in an active war with Russia and Snowden took copies of an upcoming US invasion plan with him there. In that case, two things would matter: if the Russians had the data, and whether they had cracked the encryption. However, in this case, the data Snowden has is useful as a general "What do they know" exercise. This is data that will remain interesting for the Russians and Chinese even if it takes months to crack. So, at this point, it is a problem for the US if the Russians are just in possession of it, even encrypted. It's just another bargaining chip that they have.