Edward Snowden at SXSW: The NSA is setting fire to the future of the Internet

AUSTINEdward Snowden has a piece of advice for you, the average American Internet user: Employ whatever encryption tools you have at your disposal to make the National Security Agencys job a little bit harder.

Snowden doesnt often speak to the public, given his status as an American refugee in Russia, but he appeared at South By Southwest Monday via Google Hangoutsand seven proxiesto encourage the people who create devices and software to make user security a priority.

Theres a policy response that needs to occur but theres also a technical response that needs to occur, Snowden said. Its the makers, thinkers, and the development community that can help make sure were safe.

While Edward Snowdeds SXSW appearance came via Google Hangout, his attorney, Ben Wizner (left), and ACLU technologist Chris Soghoian (right) talked on stage at the Austin conference.

The NSAs surveillance powers seem so far-reaching that fighting against them may well be an exercise in futility. Spies can track your phone calls, read your text messages, view your bank transactions and your e-mails, see your Web-browsing history, collect screenshots of your Yahoo webcam chats, and even eavesdrop on German Chancellor Angela Merkels cellphone calls. The list goes on and on. And on and on.

If youre an NSA target, there is very little you can do to keep the agency out of your computer. But the majority of the data that spy agencies are collecting is completely innocuous, and theres no rhyme or reason as to why the intelligence community needs to collect or store that information. So how do regular folks avoid getting caught in the net? Encryption is the key, Snowden said.

Full-disk encryption and network encryption, like SSL, are good places to start, but there are also tools like no-tracking browser plug-ins and Tors anonymity software. Documents leaked by Snowden show that the NSA has attempted to breach Tor but has largely been unable to de-anonymize the networks users.

We need to think about encryption not as this arcane black art but as a basic protection, the defense against the black arts in the digital realm, Snowden said.

There are more advanced encryption tools available, but theyre built by geeks for geeks. The average consumer tends to use software thats familiar or comes preinstalled on the devices they buy.

Most people arent going to go out and download an obscure encryption [tool], said Chris Soghoian, the American Civil Liberties Unions principal technologist, who spoke with Snowden at SXSW. Theyre going to use the tools they already have: Facebook, Google, Skype. When Google turned on [SSL for Gmail], they made passive surveillance of users communications more difficult for agencies. We need services to be building security in. That doesnt mean that small developers cant play a role. What I want is for the next WhatsApp or Twitter to use encrypted end-to-end communications.

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Edward Snowden at SXSW: The NSA is setting fire to the future of the Internet