Edward Snowden is the world’s most famous whistleblower and political critic. He is now living in exile in Russia with his wife and child, is still a political activist, and has a net worth of about $500K.
Edward Snowden Net Worth | |
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Name | Edward Joseph Snowden |
Nickname | Ed Snowden |
Birthday | 21 June 1983 |
Age | 39 |
Gender | Male |
Height | 5’11” |
Weight | 172 lbs |
Partner | Lindsay Mills |
Kids | Two sons |
Parents | Lonnie Snowden, Elizabeth Snowden |
Siblings | Jessica Snowden |
Nationality | American |
Profession | Computer Security Consultant, Political activist |
Net Worth | $500K |
Table of Contents
What is Edward Snowden’s Net Worth?
Edward Snowden has a net worth of about $500K. He made this money by selling his autobiography and doing various paid speaking engagements.
He is currently living in Russia with his wife Lindsay Mills and their sons. Edward Snowden is on the way to getting Russian citizenship.
Edward Snowden’s Early Life
Edward Joseph Snowden was born on 21 June 1983 in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, USA. His father, Lonnie Snowden, was a warrant officer for the Coast Guard, and his mother, Elizabeth Snowden, is a clerk with the US District Court for the District of Maryland.
His sister Jessica Snowden is a lawyer at the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, DC. His maternal grandfather Edward J Barrett is a rear admiral in the US Coast Guard and a senior official with the FBI and the Pentagon.
Edward Snowden has said that he expected to work for the US Federal Government, like the majority of his family. When Edward was in grade school, the Snowdens moved to Fort Meade, Maryland. He later had mononucleosis that caused him to miss nine months of schooling and did not graduate high school.
Instead of going back to school, he got his GED and took classes at Anne Arundel Community College. He enrolled to work on a master’s degree at the University of Liverpool, England, in 2011. He showed an IQ of 145 on two consecutive tests.
As a student, Edward was interested in Japanese culture and became fluent in Japanese, as he even worked for an anime company. He is also fluent in Mandarin Chinese, and we expect he is now well-versed in Russian.
In 2003, Edward Snowden decided to join the military and enlisted on 7 May 2004. He enlisted to become a Special Forces candidate but could not complete the training because of bilateral tibial fractures. He was discharged from the military on 28 September 2004.
Edward Snowden’s Personal Life
Edward Snowden was in a long-time relationship with Lindsey Mills. The couple married in a courthouse in Moscow in 2019. Edward and his wife Lindsey welcomed a son in December 2020 and another son in May 2022.
Edward Snowden is now living in Moscow, where he received a permanent residence, one step away from Russian citizenship.
Edward Snowden’s Weight, Height, and Measurement
Edward Snowden is 5’11” tall and weighs 172 lbs. He is fit and exercises regularly to keep his body in good shape.
Career: How Much Does Edward Snowden Make?
Edward Snowden’s first job was as a security guard for the University of Maryland’s Center for Advanced Study of Language, where he worked with a high-level security clearance. His annual salary here was less than $112K.
He was soon recruited by the CIA, where he was assigned to the global communications division at Langley, Virginia. He distinguished himself as a top computer wizard; he was sent to the CIA’s secret school for tech specialists. He lived in a hotel for six months, underwent extensive training, and learned valuable traits during this time.
His first job with the CIA was under diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was responsible for maintaining computer network security. He even got a diplomatic passport and was sent to the 2008 NATO summit in Romania. While working for the CIA, Snowden noted many irregularities and left the CIA in 2009.
He was soon employed under a contract for Dell as an instructor on computer systems security and was sent to Yokota Air Base near Tokyo. Dell manages the computer systems for many US government agencies like the CIA and NSA. Edward looked into mass surveillance in China and was inspired to investigate and later expose Washington’s mass surveillance program.
While at Dell, Edward was sent to New Delhi, India, where he enrolled at a local IT institute to learn core Java programming and advanced ethical hacking. He returned to the USA in 2011 and worked in several key positions in DELL’s CIA account when he started downloading documents proving the US government’s electronic spying programs. He was reassigned to Hawaii in 2012, where he worked as a lead tech for the NSA’s information-sharing office.
At Dell, Snowden’s yearly salary was about $200K. He went to work for Booz Allen Hamilton, a management and information technology consulting firm where he got a cut in his paycheck. Still, this gave him access to gather data on NSA’s worldwide surveillance activity.
Snowden decided to leak the NSA documents, which was prompted by seeing the director of National Intelligence lie under oath to Congress. Snowden contacted Glenn Greenwald, who worked at The Guardian, and he also contacted Laura Poitras, a writer for the New York Times.
Greenwald and Poitras began working with Snowden in April 2013; within a few months, up to 10K documents were leaked and published by all notable media outlets worldwide.
Soon after starting to work with Greenwald, Edward asked for temporary leave from his position at NSA in Hawaii, and he flew to Hong Kong. He asked for asylum in several European countries and 21 countries overall but was denied.
On 23 June 2013, Snowden landed in Moscow with a reserved seat on a flight to Cuba which he did not board. The US government canceled his passport while Snowden was in transit from Hong Kong to Havana.
He was stopped in Moscow, Russia, and was forced to spend about a month at the airport terminal. He was granted the right of asylum in Russia with an initial visa for one year, which was extended, and in October 2020, Snowden got a permanent residency in Russia.
For his action of leaking high-level security documents, Edward Snowden faces charges in the USA for violating the Espionage Act of 1917. The United States filed a Civil Action lawsuit against Snowden in 2019 for violating his NDAs with the CIA and the NSA.
He currently lives in Moscow, where he works for an undisclosed Russian company. He published his autobiography/memoir in 2019 named Permanent Record. The book became a bestseller on the release date, and his US royalties were seized, but he still got an advance of $4.2 million.
Now Snowden is writing on Substack, a subscriber-based platform. He is also earning some money by giving guest lectures and speeches at various conferences. He got about $1.2 million for 67 public speaking appearances via video link, and in March 2021, Iowa State University paid Snowden $35,000 for a speech.
From all social media platforms, Edward Snowden is only active on Twitter where he has 5.2 million followers.
Final Word: Is Edward Snowden a Millionaire?
No, Edward Snowden is not a millionaire, as he has a net worth of about $500K. He earned most of his net worth by doing computer security consultant work. He also makes some money from the sales of his
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