Secret Plan To Kill Wikileaks With FUD Leaked 246
An anonymous reader writes "Three information security consultancies with links to US spy agencies cooked up a dirty tricks campaign late last year to destroy Wikileaks by exploiting its perceived weaknesses, reads a presentation released by the whistleblowers' (pdf) organization that it claimed to be from the conspirators. Consultants at US defense contractors Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies and HBGary proposed to lawyers for a desperate Bank of America an alliance that would work to discredit the whistleblowers' website using a divide and conquer approach. Since the plan was hatched, disgruntled volunteers mentioned in the PDF broke away from Wikileaks, financial institutions withdrew services, [Jacob ] Appelbaum was harassed by the US government, and Amazon denied service to Wikileaks' website."
For further information (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/201106/6798/Data-intelligence-firms-proposed-a-systematic-attack-against-WikiLeaks [thetechherald.com]
Can't say I'm surprised but the tactics and manipulation they discuss but I find it outrageous all the same.
However, the fact that they felt the need to present such a teach-yourself-how-to-destroy-wikileaks-in-21-days presentation in such a dumb manner is somewhat encouraging.
Re:Secret Plan? (Score:4, Interesting)
Small problem, for anyone but a idiot :
Wikileaks likely has more credibly than any lawmaker , politician or US based news agency or anything the government might say.or write
Re:Secret Plan? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's seems that ways of countering access to information are on the minds of many.
We certainly heard a few things about the significance of and attempts to control the flow in Egypt. We don't hear so much about Cuba. It got my attention when someone posted that the events in Egypt weren't getting covered there.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/national_world/stories/2011/02/07/u-s-attacking-cuba-through-wi-fi-hot-spots.html [dispatch.com]
(translated text of video)
http://translatingcuba.com/?p=7111#more-7111 [translatingcuba.com]
(the video, in Spanish)
http://vimeo.com/19402730 [vimeo.com]
Re:Dear Wikileaks, (Score:4, Interesting)
I would be worried about the 'state power thing'
as far as "corporate security researchers" go, they are, apparently, using Microsoft Bob to do their "hacking"...
No, really, see the Ars Technica link up there:
"They think I have nothing but a heirarchy based on IRC [Internet Relay Chat] aliases!" he wrote. "As 1337 as these guys are suppsed to be they don't get it. I have pwned them! :)"
And that's the 'security researcher' mixing sys admins with 'hackers'
Lawsuit anyone? (Score:5, Interesting)
If this document is genuine, this company "Palantir" has suggested and supports activities that are not only criminal in Europa but also in the US. We're talking about libel and slander, "cyber-terrorist" attacks on foreign it business and infrastructure (servers hosted in Sweden, France), and so on.
I don't know whether the document itself gives enough grounds for a lawsuits, probably not, but if these guys do anything of what they suggest or even aid in it, and it can be traced back to them, I feel a lawsuit coming in 3...2...1...
By the way, how are the investigations of the DoS attacks against Wikileaks server going? Any news on that?
Re:Secret Plan? (Score:5, Interesting)
It is nice to sometime have a reminder that there ARE conspiracies happening out there. Not all of them are crackpot theories.
Ah, a fool (Score:4, Interesting)
Government and the control of society is about more then absolute evidence, it is about state of mind.
There are those in society who wish for private industry to have greater control of society without an elected body having the right to control them. So be it, but do we then just accept this without questioning what kind of mentality these self appointed power brokers posses?
This is not a criminal trial, it is a hiring process and during such a process I want to see from your past and current behavior how you are going to act in the future. So, if people propose banks like Bank of America should have LESS regulation and LESS government oversight shouldn't we first examine whether that is a good idea?
No, them telling us it is a good idea is NOT good enough fool. And THIS leak shows exactly what the mentality of the Bank of America is. No, not because there is proof they did this but because they EVEN considered it.
That requires some advanced thinking but basically goes that for some thought crimes are indeed crimes. Some people/institutions should NOT even be allowed to consider certain things.
The Kenedy assassination is a prime example of this. Was the CIA behind it or not? Doesn't really matter, it has been proven beyond a doubt that senior CIA officials had plans to assassinate the president of their own country. THAT is enough of a crime in itself. If the protector of democracy even dares thinking of killing a democratically elected leader the crime has been done.
The Bank of America by even being involved in this have shown that banks can not be trusted to be open and that private businesses will fall all over themselves to supply services to lie to the people. That means we have once again been shown that banks and private industry need strict government supervision.
That is what this leak shows.
Not some timeline of crime to be fought over in court to sentence some individuals but the whole sale condemnation of private business as being unworthy of trust.
But of course, you are a fool and trust the bank because merely considering lying isn't bad at all... no no, let them work without oversight I am sure that when something really bad happens they will tell us honestly...
Re:Gandhi (Score:4, Interesting)
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win, then they shoot you.”
Fixed.
Re:Obvious name (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Possibly from the HBGary Federal Hack? (Score:4, Interesting)
I am so glad that this snivelling little fascist, quisling, anti-democratic "security" operator got their nose bloodied, like this.
"Teacher! Johnny was chewing gum in class!"
"Good job, Gary! You have quite a future ahead of you - as we transform our liberal republic into an East-German-style police-state!"