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In the aftermath of the revelations that the NSA has been extracting data many found

their own unique ways of voicing their displeasure. Several people began posting

dangerous words from the NSA’s checklist in their emails and online posts etc. The idea
was to detract the NSA from whatever aims they’re trying to achieve. To some this may

sound like a funny revenge to take against the government. But Yin warns that it isn’t so
simple. “I think messing with the NSA is a high-risk proposition… if your idea is ‘I don’t

like the NSA and I’d do what I can to make its job more difficult and so I’m going to start

making myself look like a bad guy’, that’s what I mean by high-risk strategy, maybe you
can get away with it for a while, and maybe the risk isn’t so much that you’ll be hauled

off for some political prosecution. Rather, the problem is that the government zeroes in
on somebody who’s doing that and they can find something else wrong that the person

has done breaking the law. In the United States, there are over three thousand federal
crimes.” It won’t be fun and games when the NSA zeros in on other aspects of your life

just to get you into the trouble that you started as a joke.

At the end of the day what most people should know about the NSA is that it is here to
stay. People could do ‘The New York Times test’ on their own posts online i.e., would

you be okay with the data or information showing up on the front page of The New York
Times? If not then don’t post it. This is easier said than done though. The NSA has a

function to perform and it’s not going to stop performing said function. What people can

do is to try and use PGP (pretty good privacy) programs and other such tools to keep
their data out of the NSA’s hands.

Author Bio: Jessica has been writing about security and

privacy issues for the last couple of years. She writes regularly

for the Mobistealth blog and tweets @Jcarol429

29 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – December 2013 Edition
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