Mass-mirroring Wikileaks. Wikileaks is currently under heavy attack.
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I would just like to point out, that in Australia now all politicians are to be made to take an aptitude test, which is something that should definitely be done here in the States.
You then would definitely not have anyone eligible to run such as "I can see Russia from my house"-Palin, or "I am not a witch" O'Donnell...
Then again, you probably wouldn't have ANYONE eligible to run... OOps..
There, you can see:
So you can say that WikiLeaks is focused on general wrongdoing, which includes governmental wrongdoings:
As for the judgment thing you've mentioned:
About the hero thing, maybe you should go and meet all those families and friends of innocent people killed, look them in the eyes and say: it would have been better if Assange never did expose the truth about your loved ones, who killed them and why. You could start with Kenya.
And I'm all in favor of his exposing crimes by governments and corporations. But this latest round of diplomatic correspondence exposes...what crimes? What malfeasance? This is just routine communications among individuals in gov't in which they describe their interactions with others and offer their frank opinions and descriptions of what is going on. Nothing wrong (that I have seen anyway) with what they are doing. But still causing problems when it is "outed" - which should surprise absolutely no one.
No, Wikileaks isn't promoting transparency in government or performing a public service by publishing this kind of stuff. To the contrary, they are vastly impeding the ability of a government - any government - to actually do the job it is supposed to do by publishing this. The backlash from government is already to be seen; there will be a clamp-down on security throughout governments (thus impeding the free-flow of information AND reducing transparency), and this could well lead to an increase in attempts by governments to gain control over the internet. In some parts of the world - places where Wikileaks doesn't seem to be focusing (can anyone say "China"?) - government ALREADY controls Wikileaks. There is a fight underway to keep the US and corporations from gaining similar control over the internet in this country, and this Wikileaks thing merely strengthens the hand of those who are trying to gain control, because this current release of information is a bad thing, a serious abuse.
Further, just like in your family where you will be polite to Crazy Aunt Mabel to her face and at family gatherings when in fact you can't stand her, in the global "family gathering", the various national members of their "family" have their opinions which they don't express in order to keep the peace. Well, now the US opinions have been "outed" as have a lot of other opinions. And, just like Crazy Aunt Mabel will start nattering, become all angry, and kick off a huge family fight if you express your opinion, this kind of exposure could easily set off a similar huge family fight around this globe.
No one benefits from this current act of Wikileaks.
And I'm all in favor of his exposing crimes by governments and corporations. But this latest round of diplomatic correspondence exposes...what crimes? What malfeasance? This is just routine communications among individuals in gov't in which they describe their interactions with others and offer their frank opinions and descriptions of what is going on. Nothing wrong (that I have seen anyway) with what they are doing. But still causing problems when it is "outed" - which should surprise absolutely no one.
No, Wikileaks isn't promoting transparency in government or performing a public service by publishing this kind of stuff. To the contrary, they are vastly impeding the ability of a government - any government - to actually do the job it is supposed to do by publishing this. The backlash from government is already to be seen; there will be a clamp-down on security throughout governments (thus impeding the free-flow of information AND reducing transparency), and this could well lead to an increase in attempts by governments to gain control over the internet. In some parts of the world - places where Wikileaks doesn't seem to be focusing (can anyone say "China"?) - government ALREADY controls Wikileaks. There is a fight underway to keep the US and corporations from gaining similar control over the internet in this country, and this Wikileaks thing merely strengthens the hand of those who are trying to gain control, because this current release of information is a bad thing, a serious abuse.
Further, just like in your family where you will be polite to Crazy Aunt Mabel to her face and at family gatherings when in fact you can't stand her, in the global "family gathering", the various national members of their "family" have their opinions which they don't express in order to keep the peace. Well, now the US opinions have been "outed" as have a lot of other opinions. And, just like Crazy Aunt Mabel will start nattering, become all angry, and kick off a huge family fight if you express your opinion, this kind of exposure could easily set off a similar huge family fight around this globe.
No one benefits from this current act of Wikileaks.
I can't help though but agree with Kevin Rudd of Australia; poor security is to blame. Why not just use encryption on the communications then, nothing more? You would think an entity like the f'ing government (and diplomats communicating with other diplomats) via secure channels in the first place. It is their own damn fault, perhaps wikileaks deserves some flack for publishing this material, but wikileaks is merely the messenger. Don't shoot the messenger (hrmm, where have I heard that before?).
I can't help though but agree with Kevin Rudd of Australia; poor security is to blame. Why not just use encryption on the communications then, nothing more? You would think an entity like the f'ing government (and diplomats communicating with other diplomats) via secure channels in the first place. It is their own damn fault, perhaps wikileaks deserves some flack for publishing this material, but wikileaks is merely the messenger. Don't shoot the messenger (hrmm, where have I heard that before?).
Apparently the leaker had approved access to the data. If he had approved access, then security and encryption wouldn't matter; he had access.
As for "don't shoot the messenger", how many times in your life has someone said something to you that, if you passed it on, would cause problems? And, therefore, to keep the peace, you didn't pass it on?
Wikileaks claims to be about openness in government, and claims to be focused on rooting out corruption in government and business. I am all for that.
But this current release gives the lie to Wikileaks' claims; this isn't about rooting out corruption because nothing of the sort is to be seen in these leaks. This is merely disruptive to the proper business of governments, is spawning a HUGE backlash, and is unlikely to end well.
Attempts by online activists to bring down online retailer Amazon's website appear to have failed.
The group Anonymous had pledged to to attack the site at 1600 GMT but the site seems to be functioning normally.
The site was targeted because it withdrew services from whistle-blowing website Wikileaks
The tool through which attacks are carried out against websites perceived to be anti-Wikileaks has now been downloaded more than 31,000 times.
Security experts warned people to avoid joining the voluntary botnet.
Other targets of the loose-knit group Anonymous include Visa, Mastercard and Paypal.
The websites are targetting using the Anonymous attack tool known as LOIC. When a person installs the tool on their PC it enrols the machine into a voluntary botnet which then bombards target sites with data.
These distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are illegal in many countries, including the UK.
Social network Facebook confirmed that it had removed Operation Payback - as the campaign is known - from the site because it was promoting its attack tool.
Motivation
Anonymous member Coldblood told the BBC that he did not understand how firms such as Visa and Mastercard have decided that Wikileaks is illegal.
"We feel that they have bowed to government pressure. They say Wikileaks broke their terms and conditions but they accept payments from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan," he told the BBC.
He said that he has not personally taken part in the recent distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks but explained the motives of those who have.
"Everyone is aware that they are illegal but they feel that it is a worthy cause and the possible outcome outweighs the risk," he said.
He said such attacks were only one tactic in its fight to keep the information being distributed by Wikileaks available.
In a twist to the story it has emerged that Amazon, which last week refused to host Wikileaks, is selling a Kindle version of the documents Wikileaks has leaked.
Anonymous have named the online retailer as its next target.
Earlier attacks against Visa and Mastercard knocked the official websites of the two offline for a while and resulted in problems for some credit card holders.
The attacks have been relatively small so far mustering less then 10 gigabits per second of traffic, said Paul Sop, chief technology officer at Prolexic which helps firms to defend themselves against the type of attack being employed by Anonymous.
"What's really wreaking havoc with these enterprises is how often the attackers can rotate the attack vectors," he said. "We see the attack complexity being more devastating as the mitigation technologies enterprises use can't filter out all these permutations."
Defending against an attack typically involves analysis to work out which ones are being employed. A tactic that may not work well in this case, he said.
"These Anonymous attacks are like riding a bull, they can change wildly and at a moment's notice," said Mr Sop.
Carole Thierault, a security researcher at Sophos, warned against getting involved with the Anonymous campaign.
"No-one, no matter how much you want to take part, should do this," she said. "It is very risky, and most probably illegal."
Ms Thierault said downloading and installing the LOIC attack tool was very risky.
"No-one should download unknown code on to their system," she said. "You're giving access to your computer to a complete stranger."
Coinciding ideals
As well as releasing the attack tool, the Anonymous group has also been active in helping to create mirror sites. To date there are over one thousand sites offering exact copies of the content on Wikileaks.
It is also ensuring the information is available on dark nets, heavily encrypted layers of the internet via which information can be extracted while remaining untraceable.
The DDoS attacks are the latest battle in a wider fight known as Operation Payback, which targets firms Anonymous sees as "misusing the internet".
Past targets include the music industry and law firms associated with the attempt to bring music pirates to book.
The new-found attention on Anonymous has led the group to publish its manifesto.
In it, it denies that it is a group of hackers.
"Anonymous is not an organisation...and it most certainly is not a group of hackers," it said.
"Anonymous is an online living consciousness, comprised of different individuals with, at times, coinciding ideals and goals."
It also keen to distance itself from Coldblood, who it said is not a spokesperson for the group.
The big pharmas - all of them - are spectacularly dirty, and their growing tendency to conduct drug trials overseas is increasingly corrupting the process. So outing them on this is probably a good thing.
So that is - what - one cable out of a quarter million so far? And Wikileaks claims to vet 'em all. Uh huh.
Well who knows what all the rest of the cables may carry, maybe the rest is just boring diplomatic chatter, or there could be more revelations who knows. Whats done is done, sit back and enjoy the show either way.
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Anonymous recruits Wikileaks 'data army
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