Edward Snowden is famous for one thing: blowing the whistle on the NSA. But, really, he’s just a normal guy. Before this all happened, for instance, he threw parties like all of us! Wait, maybe not quite; they were encryption parties.
Wired reports that, months before Snowden leaked classified NSA documents, he gathered friends at the back of a Hawaiian furniture store and showed them how to protect their online data. It was a crypto party!
In fact, he organised it with activist Asher Wolf and former Tor developer Runa Sandvik; apparently neither really knew much about Snowden, and had no idea what he was about to do. So, quite secretive partying, then.
Admittedly, it was quite a ballsy move to go organising events like this at the time. Indeed, speaking to Wired, Wolf explained that it “was a huge risk for him to teach a crypto party while he was working for the NSA. I’m glad he did. What a fucking legend.” Party hard, Edward. Party. Hard. [Wired]