It is time to ask questions that no-one has asked yet, about Wikileaks. With thousands and thousands of files leaking onto the world wide web, how come no-one has tracked down who or what is leaking this stuff? This is a lot of data. Data can be tracked.
Let me give you a small example of how easy it is to track down people leaking stuff. A few years back, at the INQster, someone at a major UK publishing company sent me an email tipping me off about a story, which we ran. The next day, he was summoned to the office of the publisher and told he had been fired for gross misconduct. “You sent an email to Mike Magee using our email system, and you’re being fired because of that.” He had no response he could make. Reed had tracked the email down.
Years before, at the Rogister, someone leaked to me information about the shape of the Pentium 4 – from his Intel address. I immediately replied, saying stop using your intel.com address, you’ll get yourself fired. I think he kept his job.
The whole Wikileaks phenomenon poses a number of questions, and causes me to wonder several things.
Is it someone or more than one person in the Obama administration that is leaking this stuff for its own political ends? Is the Chinese government so clever that it is able to leak the stuff to Wikileaks? Is it the Iranian government? Russia? North Korea? Is there someone in a data centre somewhere that is able to access all these different files and send them to Wikileaks? And, nearly lastly, are all those files encrypted? And, finally, are the computer systems so leaky that the really embarrassing thing is that they’re an open book to anyone who cares to hack, hack and hack again?
Of course, I have no idea who is sending thousands of emails, PDFs or whatever they are to Wikileaks. But doesn’t this pose the really interesting question – next time a government or administration geezer stands up to condemn the Wikileaks stuff, shouldn’t some journo with gumption ask why the IT staff hasn’t tracked down the culprit or culprits yet?
It beggars belief that there isn’t someone who knows who exactly is leaking the stuff. And it also prompts the question why governments haven’t owned up that their p0wned. Doesn’t it? Maybe the governments should get Intel on the case, because the security authorities don’t seem to have an earthly how or why it’s happened. Or if they do, they are just not saying.
Inquiring and curious minds want to know. I bet Intel and Reed Publishing could help. It just isn't, and can't be Bradley Manning.
“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops."
--Jesus, in Luke 12:1-3
If You would like information about how Wikileaks operates, check the about link on wikileaks.org . You can also find plenty of useful information about their secure submission process at mirror.wikileaks.info .
There are several videos available as well, such as the recent press conferences and journalists events at the frontline club, a seminar in Sweden in mid August, and a mid summer seminar CIJ Summer School, at which Mr. Assange explained in detail and at length the process of document forensics and verification they use.
You can find this seminar and these videos and the most up to date information about Wikileaks, myths, and FAQs at wlcentral.org - a site put together by Wikileaks Supporters, not officially affiliated with Wikileaks.
These resources should be used when preparing the next article on this site, I should think.
Best of Luck with Techeye.net
- Dave Manchester
Publisher, dcmDaily Group
http://bit.ly/dcmDailyGroup
There's this interesting series on BBC, Number 10, and if you follow their logic, these things are leaked, while they may seem embarrassing on the surface, allow actual sentiments to be expressed and force certain actions through that the tradition of diplomacy wouldn't permit.
For example, a frank description of what the State Department thinks is behind the Chinese inaction on North Korean belligerence - who's embarrassed more?
Another one on the current Israeli cabinet and their intransigence on the Palestine question - might force a crisis and an early election.
And then again, it might just be some disgruntled hacker who somehow stumbled on the data.
You should know better about the technical solutions. You can use GPG/PGP to encrypt mail, you can use Tor/SSL for anonymity and encrypted communication, you can use open Wifi/internet cafes, you can drop it in a conventional mailbox. What has become easier seems to be to get larger data out of protected systems. The Pentagon NOW wants to block USB sticks on their classified systems. LOL.
I think previously most leaks were given to big news corporations, which by design have no interest in publishing delicate government, military or industrial material. Most of them will just give it to the authorities, and then it will be gone again.