Wikileaks Releases Docs Before Trial of TPB Founder Warg 70
Pirate Bay Founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg is to be tried starting tomorrow in Sweden, after his indictment last month for computer hacking and fraud. Wikileaks has released several documents related to his detention and the associated charges.
From the summary of this material: "This material includes inter alia the interrogations with GSW and his co-accused, internal correspondence from the Swedish Foreign Minister and the Swedish embassy in Cambodia, damage assessment reports by the companies and the authorities concerned, and correspondence between GSW and Kristina Svartholm and the Swedish prison authorities. The material is formally public, but the Swedish prosecution authority has refused to provide the documents in digital format. Photocopying this volume of paper costs around £350."
Notable is the refusal of Warg's request to obtain a graphing calculator while in prison.
Of course (Score:5, Funny)
With a graphing calculator he'd be able to properly plot the trajectory of his prison escape cannon.
O.o (Score:4, Insightful)
350 british pounds is a small fee to you?
Can i bum 100 off ya? I uhm, need to buy a small coffee.
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Sort of like the last leak, the "Kissinger Cables", that were publicly accessible data that journalists and historians have been making use of for years, which he downloaded, reformatted, and set on the Wikileaks site.
New slogan suggestion: Wikileaks: We Open Governments (by taking the data they've already released, running it through a couple python scripts, putting it on our site, and calling it something new)
Re:wikileaks shakes the world... again! (Score:5, Interesting)
The prosecution were attempting the censor the information by making it difficult to access. Censorship doesn't have to be absolute to be effective. Now the barrier to reading these documents went from £350 to £0 and the electronic format is easier to handle (searching etc.)
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If it is just processing cost then the government should be happy wikileak is publishing the same document more efficiently in a better format for free. In fact they should even link to wikileak directly as a cheap and faster alternative while thanking them for their good work.
On the other hand if it is about censorship then they will be mad about it. They will blame wikileak for all the evil in the world and use the legal system to bully someone into compliance.
Let see what they do next...
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Ok, show us where we can get our hands on the material when not living in Sweden or paying for it?
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He might start whistling into it and launch nuclear missiles. :P
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With a graphing calculator he'd be able to properly plot the trajectory of his prison escape cannon.
Not far from the truth. Many prisons use electronic locks on all the doors, which is in turn connected to a network and controlled through a server in the control center. You can build a card reader/writer from a tape head, and use the microprocessor inside the graphing calculator to read and amplify the pulses. You can also connect the GPIO pins to, say, the controller IC inside the door lock. A few hours of being left unattended, and using just that graphing calculator, engineer not only my own escape, bu
Re: Of course (Score:5, Insightful)
You might sound convincing, but what you are describing is BS.
Electronic locks require voltage to unlock, which is not local to the door, especially in a prison.
It takes much more than a few electronic parts to spoof a card, also you first need to clone said card.
Also, this doesnt take into account the cameras, and doors that do not have card readers for egress. These doors require remote unlocking with visual verification.
Oh also for those wondering, you cant shoot a reade to unlock a door ;)
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You might sound convincing, but what you are describing is BS.
Hackers take aim at prison locks and other real-world targets [cnn.com]
Vulnerability allows hackers to open prison doors, hiding activity from central command [venturebeat.com]
Hacking Prisons - John Strauchs, Tiffany Rad, & Teague Newman
Researchers Say Vulnerabilities Could Let Hackers Spring Prisoners From Cells [wired.com]
Clearly, they're all full of shit too.
Electronic locks require voltage to unlock, which is not local to the door, especially in a prison.
The electronic locks run on magical sky energy. There is no voltage in those wires.
Also, this doesnt take into account the cameras, and doors that do not have card readers for egress. These doors require remote unlocking with visual verification.
Right, because there has never been a case of a system being thought of as so foolproof that it didn
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Sorry I'm late to reply, didint notice until today that you had.
Now...
1. I read both articles. They are about someone from the OUTSIDE, developping a small piece of code to attack a SINGLE SPECIFIC system Siemens, that seems to have a vulnerability, and this ONLY works if you have physical access to the MAIN SERVER or manage to hack your way in to it from the internet (which I agree is possible if the state is retarded and has shit for security, such as hooking up the security network to the main network.)
2
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Sure, he can just pull out the hot-air rework station he was hiding under his cot, so he can remove the microcontroller from the board without breaking it.
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They might in your country (I'm going to guess that it's somewhere between Canada and Mexico), but you've got a massively industrialised incarceration business, with an incentive to maximise profits for the corporations who run the prisons. Most European prisons (there are a few exceptions in Britain, which are struggling to break even) are state-run and incarcerate typically less than a tenth of the proportion of the population that the American penal sys
a graphing calculator these days... (Score:3)
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Are prison locks or facilities even hackable?
I dont know about prisons in Sweden but here in the UK they get access to games consoles (and France appears Xbox exclusive), satellite TV and more so I fail to see the harm in a calculator even if it was designed to be user hackable.
http://www.gamesradar.com/over-36000-prisoners-allowed-to-own-game-consoles-in-the-uk/ [gamesradar.com]
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Most prisoners would get access to that in Sweden too. The problem here is that Mr. Warg didn't rape or murder someone, instead he did something that pissed off the authorities.
Re:a graphing calculator these days... (Score:5, Funny)
I dont know about prisons in Sweden but here in the UK they get access to games consoles (and France appears Xbox exclusive), satellite TV and more so I fail to see the harm in a calculator even if it was designed to be user hackable.
They have that in American Prisons too; Keeps the maladjusted from harming society without cutting them off completely -- Except, they don't call them "prisons", they call them "parent's basements" here.
If you've ever seen an dispute between basement dwellers, you'd know full well the danger of adding graphing calculators to the mix...
Re:a graphing calculator these days... (Score:4, Insightful)
A 2008 audit revealed that 12,948 game consoles were purchased for use in prisons with taxpayersâ(TM) money. The cost of the consoles and games totaled £221,726.
That's £17.12 per console. Including both console and games. What are they playing, Pong?
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450000000M
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It sounds kind of silly, but it is a computer. I don't know abut the Swedish prison system, but in America communication with the outside is regulated, monitored and subject to search – legal consul being an exception. Some of the (older?) versions have a IR, so another method to communicate. So letters could be written and then smuggled out. I have visions of crime bosses running their gang from the inside. Probably not applicable in this case but everybody needs to be treated the same.
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Warg's restrictions are special specifically because the crime his charged with is hacking. Banning a graphing calculator is probably overreach, but it's understandable why they'd want to keep him away from computers.
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I am going to have to disagree with you there – but it is a subject that I struggle with.
Convicted felons have (and should) their rights restricted. For example, in America, ownership of firearms is restricted. Reasonable.
But for computers / internet – in a blanket sort of way? You apply online for jobs, you communicate via e-mail, you get public services via the internet. You are stacking the odds against a person to intergate themselves back into society.
Re:a graphing calculator these days... (Score:5, Insightful)
Convicted felons have (and should) their rights restricted. For example, in America, ownership of firearms is restricted. Reasonable.
It's not reasonable at all. The persons paid their debt to society. Why can they never vote or own a firearm again? Remember, the VAST majority of convicted felons were convicted of things that were non-violent drug offenses and in most cases were years or decades in their past. If they've served their time, why are they punished for the rest of their lives? We're talking about a dude that got busted in his 20s with some coke and now he's 50, has a family, a good job, and can't vote or own a gun. It's ridiculous. All punishments should be finite and have an end.
The prohibition on voting is simply a way to keep people that might have insight into what needs to change about the prison system from having any ability to vote to change it.
Re:a graphing calculator these days... (Score:5, Insightful)
Let me ask you a question – is your objection that felons who have served their time can't vote or that the standard for felonies – those major crimes against society – has been watered down? Because it sounds to me that it is the watering down of felonies that is your issues – and I would agree with you there.
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I don't have an issue with a non-violent felon owning a gun. Honestly, I don't really have a problem with a violent one owning a gun either, because if he wants one, he's going to have one. At least if he's registered one, we know he has it.
And I don't have a problem with ANYONE voting, whether they're as sweet as Strawberry Shortcake or as monstrous as Charles Manson.
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"Let me ask you a question â" is your objection that felons who have served their time can't vote or that the standard for felonies â" those major crimes against society â" has been watered down? Because it sounds to me that it is the watering down of felonies that is your issues â" and I would agree with you there."
I cant speak for the other poster but I would say both contentions are correct. A lot of things are being called felonies now that should not be. But even beyond that, I beli
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Let me ask you a question – is your objection that felons who have served their time can't vote or that the standard for felonies – those major crimes against society – has been watered down? Because it sounds to me that it is the watering down of felonies that is your issues – and I would agree with you there.
I would object to both.
Somebody convicted of a crime is either a danger to society or they aren't. If they are dangerous to be allowed in public, then they shouldn't be allowed in public - full stop. If they aren't, then quite badgering about it for the rest of their life. Frankly our criminal justice system needs to be a lot less punitive and a lot more rehabilitative. I'm fine with deterring crime, but clearly that on its own doesn't work. If a criminal can't be rehabilitated then they should get a l
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As many others have replied, I object to both your propositions. People can and do change. Even a murderer that gets back out should be given their constitutional rights back again. After all, do you really think any law is going to even slightly hinder their ability to get a gun if they want to use it to commit a crime? I'd argue that the law actually creates an black-market that wouldn't otherwise exist and likely aids someone with ill intent.
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I think it's perfectly reasonable to keep someone who's been shown to be criminally irresponsible with firearms from having access to them. Ever. (But then I am about as anti-gun as they come, make of that what you will.)
The real cause for concern here is that drug offences that shouldn't be offences in the first place are treated as felonies, so that anyone with a personal interest in changing the drug laws is effectively silenced. And of course, anyone who's read a bit of history knows that drug laws (tho
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I'll try to be respectful here, but I do have a question: A felon has, by definition, disobeyed the law. What makes you believe they would respect the laws in regards to firearm possession?
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So people accused of treason are kept away from pens? People accused of physical violence are kept in isolation? People accused of stealing food are starved to death? People accused of lock picking have no lock on the prison cell?
As simple as it may seem, it just does not make sense. You cannot blame the tool for the crime.
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No, it's like how convicted pedophiles are not allowed to live or hang out near schools.
Obviously one has to draw a line somewhere, but comparing a computer to food is obviously not a rational comparison.
(And FYI, the analogy would be "People accused of lock picking are not allowed to have lockpicks". Which should be obvious.)
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>No, it's like how convicted pedophiles are not allowed to live or hang out near schools.
Or teenagers who got caught sexting.
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No this is like them not allowing Mitnick to use a phone because they thought he would be able to launch a nuke. It is ridiculous technophobia and is specific to this prisoner.
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This is a fairly common thing, though not always practical. In Brazil crime bosses regularly DO run their gangs from the inside. A few years ago the Brazilian authorities tried to end this by putting cellphone signal blockers around prisons.
The result was violent gang-on-police war in the streets of Sao Paulo as the gangs basically attacked the police head-on. It lasted several days and then mysteriously ended - the popular belief being that the government quietly caved and disabled the signal blockers.
Re:Not really a leak (Score:4, Informative)
In Sweden, these type of documents are accessible to the public, you just order them and pay an administrative fee. It's nice that Wikileaks releases the documents digitally tho.
that was in the summary. that it costs 350 to get these in paper format since the prosecutor refused to give them in digital form...
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I guess they want the documents to be public, but not too public.
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Yeah, but that is true for a lot of government documents. One used to have privacy via anonymity. The information was public but was hard to get to. You had to got the court house – if you knew the right jurisdiction, and you could paw though the records until you found what you wanted. (Or did not find – but what did that mean? Maybe you were not looking in the right spot.) Now it's all getting out there...
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"Public documents? At a low cost!? Guffaw! Let them eat Kickstarter!"
Re:Not really a leak [sic] (Score:2)
It's a leak to the public of "paywalled" information.
At current exchange rates, $533.00, is hardly what most people would term an "administrative fee".
If that's your idea of such, I could see alot more reason for making
fines and penalties proportional to income in order to make such penalties equivalent in weight for those who are very well off.
Cost to Copy? Here's a Cheaper Way (Score:2)
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Industry level security? (Score:3)
In the Logica incident report it says that after the incident they run the same password cracking tools as the perpetrators and managed to crack a very large number of user passwords. Their summary:
In general, the passwords set by Logica, Applicate and their customers are:
created
Since RACF stores its passwords in uppercase only, and that there is a restriction on what
characters can be used, the keyspace is samewhat limited, thus letting the attacker running a
brute force password cracking attem pt gaining yet a nother advantage.
Wikileaks: xerox your way to freedom! (Score:1)
"The material is formally public, but the Swedish prosecution authority has refused to provide the documents in digital format. Photocopying this volume of paper costs around £350."