--- title: Edward Snowden Used Cheap, Web-Crawler Software to Plunder NSA Data description: Investigators say the NSA should have easily detected former contractor's activity canonical: https://time.com/6030/snowden-nsa-cheap-software/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-02-09T14:59:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:39.335Z article:section: Politics og:title: Edward Snowden Used Cheap, Web-Crawler Software to Plunder NSA Data og:description: Investigators say the NSA should have easily detected former contractor's activity og:url: https://time.com/6030/snowden-nsa-cheap-software/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaae77aa611e67780/6986828355a8592c96a7f647/pol-snowden-130612.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2200 og:image:height: 1238 og:image:alt: NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, an analyst with a U.S. defence contractor, is interviewed by The Guardian in his hotel room in Hong Kong og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Edward Snowden Used Cheap, Web-Crawler Software to Plunder NSA Data twitter:description: Investigators say the NSA should have easily detected former contractor's activity twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaae77aa611e67780/6986828355a8592c96a7f647/pol-snowden-130612.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Snowden Used Cheap Software to Plunder NSA Data > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: NSA Reportedly Spying On Gamers And Virtual Worlds Too [Watch (HLS stream): NSA Reportedly Spying On Gamers And Virtual Worlds Too](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6qu6V0w0.m3u8) (1:58)  _Published 2013-12-09. The Guardian obtained the latest files released by Edward Snowden on how the NSA and its UK sister agency GCHQ tried to spy on gamers._ by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Feb 9, 2014 2:59 PM UTC  NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden in a still image taken from video during an interview by the Guardian in his hotel room in Hong Kong on June 6, 2013 NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden in a still image taken from video during an interview by the Guardian in his hotel room in Hong Kong on June 6, 2013 Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras—The Guardian/Reuters by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Feb 9, 2014 2:59 PM UTC Edward Snowden used widely available automated software to [steal](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/us/snowden-used-low-cost-tool-to-best-nsa.html?hp&%5Fr=0) classified data from the National Security Agency’s networks, intelligence officials have determined, raising questions about the security of other top-secret military and intelligence systems under the NSA’s purview. The New York _Times_, citing anonymous sources, reported that the former NSA contractor used a Web crawler, cheap software designed to index and back up websites, to scour the NSA’s data and return a trove of confidential documents. Snowden apparently programmed his search to find particular subjects and determine how deeply to follow links on the NSA’s internal networks. Investigators found that Snowden’s method of obtaining the data was hardly sophisticated and should have been easily detected. Snowden accessed roughly 1.7 million files, intelligence officials said last week, partly because the NSA “compartmented” relatively little information, making it easier for a Web crawler like the one Snowden used to access a large number of files. \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/us/snowden-used-low-cost-tool-to-best-nsa.html?hp&%5Fr=0)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6030/snowden-nsa-cheap-software/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6030/snowden-nsa-cheap-software/"},"headline":"Snowden Used Cheap Software to Plunder NSA Data","datePublished":"2014-02-09T14:59:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:01:39.335Z","description":"Investigators say the NSA should have easily detected former contractor's activity","url":"https://time.com/6030/snowden-nsa-cheap-software/","keywords":["NSA","russia","National Security Agency","China","Domestic Surveillance","Edward Snowden","Software"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaae77aa611e67780/6986828355a8592c96a7f647/pol-snowden-130612.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaae77aa611e67780/6986828355a8592c96a7f647/pol-snowden-130612.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, an analyst with a U.S. defence contractor, is interviewed by The Guardian in his hotel room in Hong Kong","caption":"NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, an analyst with a U.S. defence contractor, is interviewed by The Guardian in his hotel room in Hong Kong","creditText":"Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras—The Guardian/Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/nsa/","name":"NSA"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6030/snowden-nsa-cheap-software/","name":"Snowden Used Cheap Software to Plunder NSA Data"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"NSA Reportedly Spying On Gamers And Virtual Worlds Too","description":"The Guardian obtained the latest files released by Edward Snowden on how the NSA and its UK sister agency GCHQ tried to spy on gamers.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/6qu6V0w0/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-12-09T18:30:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6qu6V0w0.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6030/snowden-nsa-cheap-software/","duration":"PT1M58S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6030/snowden-nsa-cheap-software/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```