How to leak a secret and not get caught

Newscientist ^ | 12 January 2007 | Paul Marks

[kinoxi]

Leaking a sensitive government document can mean risking a jail sentence - but not for much longer if an online service called WikiLeaks goes ahead. WikiLeaks is designed to allow anyone to post documents on the web without fear of being traced.

The creators of the site are thought to include political activists and open-source software engineers, though they are keeping their identities secret. Their goal is to ensure that whistle-blowers and journalists are not thrown into jail for emailing sensitive documents. That was the fate of Chinese journalist Shi Tao, who was sentenced to a 10-year term in 2005 after publicising an email from Chinese officials about the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

According to the group's website www.wikileaks.org, its primary targets include China, Russia, and oppressive regimes in Eurasia, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. It is not limited to these countries, however, and people anywhere will be able to use the site to reveal unethical behaviour by governments and corporations. "Targets include China, Russia and oppressive regimes in the Middle East"

Normally an email or a document posted to a website can be traced back to its source because each data packet carries the IP address of the last server that it passed through. To prevent this, WikiLeaks will exploit an anonymising protocol known as The Onion Router (Tor), which routes data through a network of servers that use cryptography to hide the path that the packets took.

[FLOutdoorsman]

They already have CBS, NBC, ABC and the rest.

[WorkerbeeCitizen]

If I were a spy for a forign government, this is how I would gather data. Brilliant.
America needs to start throwing spys into jail for extended periods of time.

[ClearCase_guy]

Dan Rather has already populated their site with a wide variety of leaked documents.

[james500]

One of them thought there were too many secrets on the secret mailing list so he posted a bunch of it on his obnoxious website - www.cryptome.org

[Miss Marple]

Hmmm. If I were wanting to catch a lot of leakers, I would publicize a "no-risk" site for posting stuff. Of course, I would be tracing whatever was posted and arresting people pronto.

[healy61]

I can imagine the conversation in some god-forsaken land: Hey, we are dieing here and risking our lives with this information, and Americans are complaining about pot holes and insulting innuendoes.

I think someone could figure the sources out. I read an article about a computor motherboard in the water for a couple years, and the data was recovered. So was one in a fire for several hours. Nothing is secret.

[moonman]

Sandy Burglar should sign up for this. Hillary Clinton can post copies of those 900 FBI files she has on their enemies.

[dhuffman@awod.com]

http://www.wikileaks.org/index.html

Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interests are oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to those in the west who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their own governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact; this means our interface is identical to Wikipedia and usable by non-technical people. We have received over 2.1 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources.

We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies. Many governments would benefit from increased scrutiny by the world community, as well as their own people. We believe this scrutiny requires information. Historically that information has been costly - in terms of human life and human rights. Wikileaks will facilitate safety in the ethical leaking movement.

Wikileaks opens leaked documents up to a much more exacting scrutiny than any media organization or intelligence agency could provide. Wikileaks will provide a forum for the entire global community to examine any document for credibility, plausibility, veracity and falsifiability. They will be able to interpret documents and explain their relevance to the public. If a document comes from the Chinese government, the entire Chinese dissident community can freely scrutinize and discuss it; if a document arrives from Iran, the entire Farsi community can analyze it and put it in context.

In its landmark ruling on the Pentagon Papers, the US Supreme Court ruled that "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government." We agree.

The ruling stated that "paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell."

We believe that it is not only the people of one country that keep their government honest, but also the people of other countries who are watching that government. That is why the time has come for an anonymous global avenue for disseminating documents the public should see.

Volunteer to help. Almost everyone can be of some assistance. See the FAQ for further details

Help support Wikileaks.

“Three things can not hide for long: the Moon, the Sun and the Truth” -- Siddhartha Gautama

Wikileaks.org : Home | News | FAQ | Press | Contact | Links

[kinoxi]

Interesting Buddha quotes. Where are they from?

[dhuffman@awod.com]

I dunno. They're probably copyrighted.

[kaboom]

They made a mistake on the first web site address and found that few people were signing up...http://www.wikileaks.gov/index.html

[sergeantdave]

I can see people making up bad stuff about governments and corporations, then posting it here.

Who's going to check to see if the info is correct?

This will quickly become the Howard Dean scream site for kooks.

[jjw]

I wonder if chinese officials will monitor ip traffic going to this web site.

[true_blue_texican]

America needs to start throwing spys into jail for extended periods of time.

Agreed!

[lowbridge]

How to leak a secret and not get caught

I already know how.

For example, to this day NO ONE knows about my role in Watergate.

Oops.

[JimRed]

Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interests are oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to those in the west who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their own governments and corporations.

Do the words "unintended consequences" ring a bell?

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 12 January 2007.

I think this is the very first FRchives topic about WikiLeaks, posted by kinoxi over three years ago.