Therefore, he joined the army.Įd injured his legs during basic training and had to leave the army. He didn’t have enough qualifications to be a hacker for an intelligence agency, and computers were easy for him and he wanted to do something harder. Ed had never felt more patriotic or American and decided to serve. September 11, 2001, changed everything for Ed (and for the US). If he wanted to keep working in tech, he knew he’d have to acquire a professional certification, so he tested for his Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE).

She hired Ed to work for her.Įd was infatuated with Mae, even though she was older and married, and enjoyed working with her even though the actual work was sometimes repetitive. He made friends with a group of people in his Japanese class and one of them, Mae, owned a web design business. Ed absolutely did not want to do this, so he “hacked” the school system-he discovered he didn’t actually need a high school diploma to attend college, so he applied to Anne Arundel Community College and was accepted.Įd enjoyed his college classes more than he’d enjoyed his high school ones.

He became too ill to even use the computer and missed so much school he was told he’d have to repeat the year. In freshman year of high school, Ed’s parents divorced, and in sophomore year, he came down with mononucleosis. His most notable achievement was discovering a security hole on the website of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a US nuclear facility. In Ed’s teenage years, he began to question authority and got into hacking. Ed-and everyone-had tremendous freedom online. The early Internet was mainly used by people (rather than governments or businesses), it wasn’t monetized, and it was anonymous. The Internet of Ed’s childhood was a different entity than it is today. By age 12, his goal was to spend as much time on the Internet as possible. He first encountered video games when he was six and his family got a home computer when he was nine.

Growing up, Ed was fascinated by technology.

Ed’s ChildhoodĮdward, who’s referred to as “Ed” throughout the book, was born in 1983, the same year as the public Internet. 1-Page Summary 1-Page Book Summary of Permanent RecordĮdward Snowden is a whistleblower who revealed the existence of STELLARWIND, the US government’s mass surveillance program.

Permanent Record by Edward Snowden