WikiLeaks Was Launched With Documents Intercepted From Tor | Threat Level. WikiLeaks, the controversial whistleblowing site that exposes secrets of governments and corporations, bootstrapped itself with a cache of documents obtained through an internet eavesdropping operation by one of its activists, according to a new profile of the organization’s founder. The activist siphoned more than a million documents as they traveled across the internet through Tor, also known as “The Onion Router,” a sophisticated privacy tool that lets users navigate and send documents through the internet anonymously.
The siphoned documents, supposedly stolen by Chinese hackers or spies who were using the Tor network to transmit the data, were the basis for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s assertion in 2006 that his organization had already “received over one million documents from 13 countries” before his site was launched, according to the article in The New Yorker. The interception may have legal implications, depending on what country the activist was based in. See also: Wikileaks May Have Used Music, Photo Networks to Get Data. WikiLeaks, condemned by the U.S. government for posting secret data leaked by insiders, may have used music- and photo-sharing networks to obtain and publish classified documents, according to a computer security firm.
Tiversa Inc., a company based in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, has evidence that WikiLeaks, which has said it doesn’t know who provides it with information, may seek out secret data itself, using so-called “peer-to-peer” networks, Chief Executive Officer Robert Boback claimed. He said the government is examining evidence that Tiversa has turned over.
The company, which has done investigative searches on behalf of U.S. agencies including the FBI, said it discovered that computers in Sweden were trolling through hard drives accessed from popular peer-to-peer networks such as LimeWire and Kazaa. The same information obtained in those searches later appeared on WikiLeaks, Boback said. WikiLeaks bases its most important servers in Sweden. ‘Completely False’ Navy Systems U.S. Did WikiLeaks Publish Documents Siphoned from File-Sharing Networks? | Threat Level. Music and movie pirates may not be the only ones trolling peer-to-peer networks for booty. The secret-spilling site WikiLeaks may also have used file sharing networks to obtain some of the documents it has published, according to a computer-security firm. The allegations come from Tiversa, a Pennsylvania peer-to-peer investigations firm, that claims it passed information of WikiLeaks’ file sharing activity to U.S. government officials, according to Bloomberg.
Tiversa asserts that on Feb. 7, 2009 it monitored four computers based in Sweden, where WikiLeaks’ primary servers were based, as they conducted 413 searches on peer-to-peer networks seeking Microsoft Excel files and other data-heavy documents, some of which were subsequently published online by WikiLeaks. If the allegations are true, it would not be the first time that WikiLeaks published documents that were obtained through hacking or online surveillance rather than from a whistleblower or other insiders. See also. Tiversa™ - The P2P Intelligence Experts. Internet sharing exposes secrets Boback 2007. Hundreds of classified documents, including a Pentagon computer network diagram that contained system passwords of defense contractors, have been accidentally leaked on the Internet through peer-to-peer software, lawmakers were told yesterday.
Users of peer-to-peer services such as Kazaa, LimeWire and Morpheus are unknowingly allowing this and other private information, such as bank statements and Social Security numbers, to be shared through the software, experts said at a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing. Peer-to-peer networks can be used to share music, movie and other files. “It is an urgent problem. We don’t know what is already out there,” said retired Gen.
The hearing yesterday was not intended to shut down peer-to-peer networks but rather to examine their threats to national and personalsecurity, said committee Chairman Henry A. Mr. But some users are deliberately searching for bank statements and credit-card numbers, as well as medical records. Tiversa Advisors: Howard Schmidt + ... Dr. Larry Ponemon is the Chairman and Founder of the Ponemon Institute, a research “think tank” dedicated to advancing privacy and data protection practices. Dr. Ponemon is considered a pioneer in privacy auditing and the Responsible Information Management or RIM framework. Ponemon Institute conducts independent research, educates leaders from the private and public sectors and verifies the privacy and data protection practices of organizations in a various industries.
In addition to Institute activities, Dr. Ponemon is an adjunct professor for ethics and privacy at Carnegie Mellon University’s CIO Institute. He is a founding board member of the Unisys Corporation’s Security Leadership Institute. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Back to top. Howard Schmidt. Howard A. Schmidt is a partner with Tom Ridge in Ridge Schmidt Cyber LLC, a consultancy company in the field of cybersecurity.[1] He was the Cyber-Security Coordinator of the Obama Administration,[2] operating in the Executive Office of the President of the United States. He announced his retirement from that position on May 17, 2012, effective at the end of the month.[3] One of Schmidt's leading policy objectives was the development of "National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace", which sought to enable private industry to create electronic identities that can be relied upon in cyberspace similar to the way that businesses rely on the combination of driver's licenses and credit cards to authenticate identities in physical space.[4] Education[edit] Biography[edit] Public Service[edit] Schmidt began his government service in the United States Air Force in 1967, where he studied chemical weapons, high explosives, and nuclear weapons while attending munitions school.
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