WikiLeaks Starts Mass Mirroring Effort 586
A beautiful mind writes "WikiLeaks is asking for hosting space on Unix-based servers. The replication is implemented by a rsync+ssh based push that copies static files to a known path, authenticated via the private half of this public key. The complete website is a few GB in size, making it feasible to replicate on a large scale. The mirror list will be published when the number of independent mirrors reaches 50." Note: wikileaks.ch seems to be down for the moment, but eventually the above links may require that instead of 213.251.145.96. See also this WikiLeaks address finder. And for even more news, try this Twitter search.
Re:Make it static. (Score:4, Informative)
If they're just mirroring what's currently on the site then most of the cables stuff is not there
Are you high, or just engaged in the most inept disinformation campaign since the Iraqi WMDs? It took me all of 30 seconds to go to the site and pull up the list of the cables. 10 more seconds let me pull up 5 of them to verify that the links work.
No stopping the current information at least. (Score:5, Informative)
Since it's already released. It's already been revealed at least in Swedish news, that part of the encrypted "insurance" file that's been distributed via BT, is the *full* cablegate archive -- remember that by far most haven't been released yet, at least not to non-news organizations. And that's part of that file, and then some unknown stuff too. So if anything would happen to these guys that would piss them off enough, they'd just release the keys and boom, thousands of users would have this data.
Re:Other countries? (Score:2, Informative)
Somebody should leak information about China to them, then. Wikileaks aren't the ones actually leaking this, you know - they just act as a middle man to ensure anonymous leaking and widespread distribution.
Re:Make it static. (Score:5, Informative)
non-paraphrased:
Consider it carefully -- Re:I'd host it if.... (Score:5, Informative)
While I am kinda rooting for wikileaks in this, I think anyone who is considering to sign up to think about this:
1. you give them shell access to your host
2. you grant access on the basis of a ssh public key, which you're getting from an unencrypted page. It could be anyone's and it could be coming from anywhere.
Consider the risks carefully before you sign up.
Wikileaks: please put some more thinking into your backup plans, even if you have to come up with them in emergency.
Re:Make it static. (Score:3, Informative)
Let's go through your list:
1. Berlin Airlift - Saved 2 million residents from going hungry, which was fallout from the partitioning of Europe between WWII allies
2. Korean Police Action - Do you think North Koreans or Chinese have more freedoms today? Is there more suffering in rural China than in the DPRK?
3. Greek Civil War - How is foreign government intervention democratic when the result is a dictatorship?
4. Brussels Pact/NATO: currently the occupying force of Afghanistan.
5. SEATO? The one that didn't do shit about Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, East Timor...?
6. UN: Would be great if the United States would accept it's legitimacy. Right now it's just the chessboard upon which the Great Game is played.
7. The strategic arms limitation treaties: I don't think the West gets credit for cleaning up the mess it created by escalating nuclear proliferation, like secretly allowing Pakistan to develop nukes.
8. the opening of China/US diplomatic relations: which only really happened after Tiananmen Square, once China proved it had the will and the capability to kill it's own citizens to keep business going. Hardly the diamond of democratic progress you're looking for.
9. the founding of the Solidarity Union: Perhaps the only real success story of the Cold War. Too bad anything supportive of unions is out of vogue with US propaganda.
10. the fall of the Soviet Union and reunification: for every country liberated by the fall of the iron curtain, the west destroyed at least one trying to subvert the spread of communism through clandestine military action
Let's go through my list:
50s
- Coup of democratic governments in: Iran, Guatemala
- Attempted coups in Laos, Vietnam
- Support of Duvalier over democratic movements in Haiti
60s
- War in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos
- Coups and assassinations in: Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Greece, Congo, Brazil, Indonesia
- Attempted coup in Cuba
70s
- War in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, East Timor
- Coups and assassinations in Chile, Angola, El Salvador, Nicaragua
- Escalation of Afghan War
80s
- War in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama
- Coups and assassinations in: Columbia, Panama, Haiti, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador
90s
- Coups and assassinations in: Haiti
- War in Iraq
00s
- War in Iraq, Afghanistan
- Military strikes in Pakistan, Yemen
This is not the whole list, does not touch military and diplomatic support, and does not touch weapons sales.
Re:Consider it carefully -- Re:I'd host it if.... (Score:3, Informative)
As far as the shell access thing goes, I think there are two valid choices:
1. Use chrootssh [sourceforge.net] along with some security settings in ssh that limit the user to only using the rsync command. There used to be a really good tutorial on doing that but I can't find it at the moment. Try this one [theillien.com] for now or google around. There may be some other methods of doing this (I'm thinking Apparmor or SElinix).
2. Use a virtual machine as the host. Take your pick, VMware, Xen, UML, VirtualBox, whatever. Then lock down the VM like crazy as you see fit since it only has to serve this one purpose.
Probably best would be to use a virtual machine running the chrootssh stuff with Apparmor or SElinux limiting the filesystem access. The best of all for the hyperparanoid.
For those that can't mirror, you can still help! (Score:5, Informative)
The WL episode is showing us that our own politicians would readily abandon core values of democracy in order to avoid embarrassment. It also clearly demonstrates that we live in a world where our personal communications can readily be disrupted at the whim of private corporations under pressure from these same politicians.
Democracy can only thrive with the uninhibited exchange of communications between individuals. If you want to help ensure democracy, do any of the following:
1) Run a TOR server ( http://www.torproject.org/ [torproject.org] ). This is software that helps provide freedom and privacy by encrypting and distributing network communications. If you don't want to run TOR on your machine, rent a Virtual Private Server (VPS) and do it on someone else's box.
2) Support the EFF ( http://www.eff.org/ [eff.org] ). This organization understands technology and knows that in the digital age, information is power.
3) Support open-source distributed alternatives to web-based software-as-a-service. EveryDNS, Paypal, Twitter, Amazon's EC2, and even our beloved Google are points of vulnerability in democracy since their fundamental obligation is to shareholders instead of to an innate code of ethics. How would you find information if Google bowed to Government pressure? The only thing that will ensure corporations stay in line is the existence of alternatives such as a distributed search engine (http://yacy.de/ ).
4) Support open-source software by using it, contributing time or money to its development, and requesting that our Governments make policies to use it. The world would be a very different place if the power of public-key-encryption was kept solely in Government and Corporate hands. Only Free and Open Source Software ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open_source_software [wikipedia.org] ) ensures that all members of society who use information technology are on the same footing.
5) Let others know what is at stake, spread the word. Democracy takes active participation, and this takes patience and explanation so that nontechnical Constituents have the understanding that you possess.
Our communications technology is only a tool and can be used to both facilitate democracy and better the world, or to enslave humankind. We are witnessing the first infowar of the digital age, and the powers that be will use it to push hard for bans on encryption, crackdown on peer-to-peer communication, and other information tools.
Will you watch silently and let information technology turn into a tool of repression, or will you take a stand while you still can? The race is on, do something!