WikiLeaks, TOR, And The Ghost Net Network

[Bruce551]

WikiLeaks Was Launched With Documents Intercepted From Tor

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/06/wikileaks-documents/#ixzz0phK4Mk6j

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.

Only a small portion of those intercepted documents were ever posted on WikiLeaks, but the new report is the first indication that some of the data and documents on WikiLeaks did not come from sources who intended for the documents to be seen or posted. It also explains an enduring mystery of WikiLeaks’ launch: how the organization was able to amass a collection of secret documents before its website was open for business.

Tor is a sophisticated privacy tool endorsed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other civil liberties groups as a method for whistleblowers and human rights workers to communicate with journalists, among other uses. In its search for government and corporate secrets traveling through the Tor network, it’s conceivable that WikiLeaks may have also vacuumed up sensitive information from human rights workers who did not want their data seen by outsiders.

The interception may have legal implications, depending on what country the activist was based in. In the United States, the surreptitious interception of electronic communication is generally a violation of federal law, but the statute includes a broad exception for service providers who monitor their own networks for legitimate maintenance or security reasons. “The statutory language is broad enough that it might cover this and provide a defense,†says former U.S. federal prosecutor Mark Rasch.

The New Yorker article did not indicate whether WikiLeaks continues to intercept data from the Tor network. Assange did not immediately return a call for comment from Threat Level.

WikiLeaks uses a modified version of the Tor network for its own operations, moving document submissions through it to keep them private. WikiLeaks computers also reportedly feed “hundreds of thousands of fake submissions through these tunnels, obscuring the real documents,†according to The New Yorker.

The intercepted data was gathered from Tor sometime before or around December 2006, when Assange and fellow activists needed a substantial number of documents in their repository in order to be taken seriously as a viable tool for whistleblowers and others.

The solution came from one of the activists associated with the organization who owned and operated a server that was being used in the Tor anonymizing network. Tor works by using servers donated by volunteers around the world to bounce traffic around, en route to its destination. Traffic is encrypted through most of that route, and routed over a random path each time a person uses it.

Under Tor’s architecture, administrators at the entry point can identify the user’s IP address, but can’t read the content of the user’s correspondence or know its final destination. Each node in the network thereafter only knows the node from which it received the traffic, and it peels off a layer of encryption to reveal the next node to which it must forward the connection.

By necessity, however, the last node through which traffic passes has to decrypt the communication before delivering it to its final destination. Someone operating that exit node can therefore read the traffic passing through this server.

According to The New Yorker, “millions of secret transmissions passed through†the node the WikiLeaks activist operated — believed to be an exit node. The data included sensitive information of foreign governments.

The activist believed the data was being siphoned from computers around the world by hackers who appeared to be in China and who were using the Tor network to transmit the stolen data. The activist began recording the data as it passed through his node, and this became the basis for the trove of data WikiLeaks said it had “received.â€

The first document WikiLeaks posted at its launch was a “secret decision†signed by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a Somali rebel leader for the Islamic Courts Union. The document, which called for hiring hit men to execute government officials, had been siphoned from the Tor network.

Assange and the others were uncertain of its authenticity, but they thought that readers, using Wikipedia-like features of the site, would help analyze it. They published the decision with a lengthy commentary, which asked, “Is it a bold manifesto by a flamboyant Islamic militant with links to Bin Laden? Or is it a clever smear by US intelligence, designed to discredit the Union, fracture Somali alliances and manipulate China?â€

The document’s authenticity was never determined, and news about Wikileaks quickly superseded the leak itself.

Since then, the site has published numerous sensitive documents related to the U.S. military, foreign governments and corporations. WikiLeaks made headlines in April when it published a classified U.S. Army video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in an Iraqi neighborhood. The raid killed at least 18 people — including two Reuters employees — and injured two children.

WikiLeaks, whose website is hosted primarily through a Swedish Internet service provider called PRQ.se, never reveals the sources of its documents, and in the case of the Apache video, Assange has said only that it came from someone who was angry about the military’s frequent use of the term “collateral damage.â€

The New Yorker doesn’t identify the WikiLeaks activist who was the source for the documents siphoned from Tor, but the description of how the documents were obtained is similar to how a Swedish computer security consultant named Dan Egerstad intercepted government data from five Tor exit nodes he set up in 2007 — months after WikiLeaks launched — in Sweden, Asia, the United States and elsewhere.

Egerstad told Threat Level in August 2007 that he was able to read thousands of private e-mail messages sent by foreign embassies and human rights groups around the world by turning portions of the Tor internet-anonymity service into his own private listening post. The intercepted data included user names and passwords for e-mail accounts of government workers, as well as correspondence belonging to the Indian ambassador to China, various politicians in Hong Kong, workers in the Dalai Lama’s liaison office and several human rights groups in Hong Kong.

Egerstad, who says he has no association with WikiLeaks and was not the source for the intercepted Tor documents the site received, told Threat Level at the time that he believed hackers were using the Tor network to transmit data stolen from government computers and that he was able to view the data as it passed through his node unencrypted.

Egerstad was never able to determine the identity of the hackers behind the data he intercepted, but it’s believed that he may have stumbled across the so-called Ghost Net network — an electronic spy network that had infiltrated the computers of government offices, NGOs and activist groups in more than 100 countries since at least the spring of 2007.

The Ghost Net network was exposed by other researchers last year who discovered that hackers — believed by some to be based in China — were surreptitiously stealing documents and eavesdropping on electronic correspondence on more than 1,200 computers at embassies, foreign ministries, news media outlets and nongovernmental organizations based primarily in South and Southeast Asia.

It’s not known if the data the WikiLeaks activist siphoned was data stolen by the Ghost Net hackers.

Photo: Julian Assange

Lily Mihalik/Wired.com

This is why Google is dumping Windows, because the Chinese have "Spy" trojans that allow them to access Windows computers any time they want.

[LakeGeneve]

The creator of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, is a brilliant guy with solid politics. He is from my home city of Melbourne and was involved in a hacking gorup which infiltrated the US DOD and NASA comps amongst others in the mid 90s when he was in his late teens. I cannot remember the outcome of the case.

He is very camera shy. However, just recently one Oz current affairs program did air an interview with him which is worth watching for anyone interested in Wikileaks.

[LakeGeneve]

WikiLeaks made headlines in April when it published a classified U.S. Army video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in an Iraqi neighborhood. The raid killed at least 18 people — including two Reuters employees — and injured two children.

U.S. Soldier Arrested in WikiLeaks Inquiry After Tip From Former Hacker, NYT, June 7, 2010, 9:33 am

Wired’s Threat Level blog reported late Sunday that “an Army intelligence analyst who boasted of giving classified U.S. combat video and hundreds of thousands of classified State Department records to whistleblower site WikiLeaks,†was arrested by the Pentagon.

The leaked video, which was filmed in Baghdad in 2007 during an operation that killed civilians, including two Reuters journalists, was published online by WikiLeaks in April.

Kevin Poulsen and Kim Zetter of Threat Level wrote:

Specialist Bradley Manning, 22, of Potomac, Md., was stationed at Forward Operating Base Hammer, 40 miles east of Baghdad, where he was arrested nearly two weeks ago by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division. A family member says he’s being held in custody in Kuwait and has not been formally charged.

Manning was turned in late last month by a former computer hacker with whom he spoke online. In the course of their chats, Manning took credit for leaking a headline-making video of a helicopter attack that WikiLeaks posted online in April.

According to Wired, “Manning came to the attention of the F.B.I. and Army investigators after he contacted former hacker Adrian Lamo late last month over instant messenger and e-mail.â€

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/u-s-soldier-arrested-in-wikileaks-probe-after-tip-from-former-hacker/?hp

[LakeGeneve]

Assange in danger?!

Cyber leaker 'may be in peril' DYLAN WELCH The Age June 14, 2010

IT READS like a James Bond novel: its cast includes an enigmatic white-haired computer hacker; a soldier turned whistleblower; secret government correspondence; and the world's most powerful country desperate to contain the situation. And it is all because of an Australian.

Julian Assange, the Australian-born face of the Wikileaks website, is in hiding overseas after the US military arrested one of its own soldiers, Bradley Manning, and accused him of leaking a secret video of a US Army helicopter gunning down civilians in Iraq in 2007.

The video was released on Wikileaks earlier this year, and the US is now desperate to find Mr Assange before he leaks thousands of embarrassing state diplomatic cables, which are believed to discuss the the Middle East, its governments and leaders.

Mr Assange, 38, is an enigmatic figure who moves frequently between countries and has bases in Iceland, Kenya, Australia and elsewhere. He was due to speak at a Las Vegas conference on Friday but cancelled shortly before he was due to appear.

At the same time a US website published an article claiming that Pentagon investigators were engaged in a ''manhunt'' for Mr Assange to try to stop him from publishing the cables. Wikileaks, which launched in 2007, is a clandestine, international organisation that relies on anonymous leaks of confidential documents from government and industry.

Although it has had a history of funding difficulties and opposition from governments - Australian communications minister Stephen Conroy threatened to call in the federal police when the site published a confidential internet censorship blacklist - it has continued to operate sporadically.

But it appears the latest leak may have pushed the US too far, and some in the US have even suggested Mr Assange may be in physical danger.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/cyber-leaker-may-be-in-peril-20100613-y5y6.html

[PiAnt]

I got as far as Wikileaks was...

But up to then it was pretty interesting.

[LakeGeneve]

I got as far as Wikileaks was...

But up to then it was pretty interesting.

Quick summary -

Geek interested in more than porn and video games creates site to spill the beans and scares the **** out of the Yanks.

Now they want to whack him.

[PiAnt]

I got as far as Wikileaks was...

But up to then it was pretty interesting.

Quick summary -

Geek interested in more than porn and video games creates site to spill the beans and scares the sh*t out of the Yanks.

Now they want to whack him.

Ahh gotcha.

Ok impeach the senate, bring charges against a single black mother and get someone famous to play the lawyer against an unknown.

Job's a good'n.

[eagle]

I got as far as Wikileaks was...

But up to then it was pretty interesting.

Quick summary -

Geek interested in more than porn and video games creates site to spill the beans and scares the sh*t out of the Yanks.

Now they want to whack him.

Ahh gotcha.

Ok impeach the senate, bring charges against a single black mother and get someone famous to play the lawyer against an unknown.

Job's a good'n.

Politics simplified :twisted:

[LakeGeneve]

I imagine a few of you will be interested in watching this current affairs story on Wikileaks and Assange by the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program which I just saw this morning on the Australia Network in BKK.

You can watch it online here;

http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2010/s2934042.htm

It seems the US govt and DOD is relly out to get Wikileaks concerned at the prospect of what else may be leaked in the future.

[Bruce551]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/02/jacob-appelbaum-wikileaks_n_667665.html?view=screen

08- 2-10 06:21 PM

Jacob Appelbaum, a Seattle-based volunteer hacker for Wikileaks, touched down at Newark Internation Airport in New Jersey on his way back from Holland last Thursday, and was promptly whisked away by U.S. customs officials for a "random" security search.

The hacker told CNET he was interrogated as to the whereabouts of his boss -- Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has gone underground since the U.S. government announced it was hunting him -- as well as "his attitudes to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and on the philosophy behind Wikileaks."

Appelbaum's laptop was briefly confiscated, but investigators kept his three cell phones.

Sources told CNET that Appelbaum declined to comment on any Wikileaks-related questions without a lawyer. Still, the investigators managed to briefly confiscate his laptop, and kept his phones.

The three-hour detainment was keeping Appelbaum from the DefCon hacker conference in Las Vegas, where he gave a speech Saturday defending Wikileaks' commitment to exposing private government information.

"All governments are on a continuum of tyranny," he said (h/t The Independent). "In the U.S., a cop with a gun can commit the most heinous crime and be given the benefit of the doubt. In the U.S., we don't have censorship, but we do have collaborating news organizations."

Good to see a few out there rattling the Gov. cage

[Bruce551]

Wikileaks

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/08/cyberwar-wikileaks/

But that wouldn’t do much good either. WikiLeaks wrote its own insurance policy two weeks ago, when it posted a 1.4 GB file called insurance.aes256.

The file’s contents are encrypted, so there’s no way to know what’s in it. But, as we’ve previously reported, it’s more than 19 times the size of the Afghan war log — large enough to contain the entire Afghan database, as well as the other, larger classified databases said to be in WikiLeaks’ possession. Accused Army leaker Bradley Manning claimed to have provided WikiLeaks with a log of events in the Iraq war containing 500,000 entries from 2004 through 2009, as well as a database of 260,000 State Department cables to and from diplomatic posts around the globe.

Whatever the insurance file contains, Assange — appearing via Skype on a panel at the Frontline Club — reminded everyone Thursday that he could make it public at any time. “All we have to do is release the password to that material and it’s instantly available,†he said.

WikiLeaks is encouraging supporters to download the insurance file through the BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay. “Keep it safe,†reads a message greeting visitors to the WikiLeaks chat room. After two weeks, the insurance file is doubtless in the hands of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of netizens already.

We dipped into the torrent Friday to get a sense of WikiLeaks’ support in that effort. In a few minutes of downloading, we pulled bits and piece of insurance.aes256 from 61 seeders around the world. We ran the IP addresses through a geolocation service and turned it into a KML file to produce the Google Map at the top of this page. The seeders are everywhere, from the U.S., to Iceland, Australia, Canada and Europe. They had all already grabbed the entire file, and are now just donating bandwidth to help WikiLeaks survive.*

Since the Afghan war logs were posted, it’s emerged the 77,000 records already published contain the names of hundreds of Afghan informants, who now face potentially deadly reprisal from the Taliban. WikiLeaks’ publication of those records has drawn criticism from human rights organizations and the international free press group Reporters Without Borders.

Those organizations are just urging WikiLeaks to be more careful with its releases. But the Pentagon has hinted it actually has some recourse against the site. “If doing the right thing isn’t good enough for them, we will figure out what alternatives we have to compel them to do the right thing,†Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said last week. It’s hard to see what that recourse might be, when Julian Assange, or someone in his inner circle, can spill 1.4 gigabytes of material with a single well-crafted tweet.

[Stramash]

set up????

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange accused of rape

Swedish authorities say they have issued an arrest warrant for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, on accusations of rape and molestation.

The warrant was issued late on Friday, said Karin Rosander, communications head at Sweden's prosecutors' office.

Swedish police have been trying to contact Mr Assange, but have not yet been able to, she told the BBC.

Wikileaks, criticised for leaking Afghan war documents, quoted him saying the charges were "without basis"

The message, which appeared on Twitter and was attributed directly to Mr Assange, said the appearance of the allegations "at this moment is deeply disturbing".

In a series of other messages posted on the Wikileaks Twitter feed, the whistle-blowing website said: "No-one here has been contacted by Swedish police", and that it had been warned to expect "dirty tricks".

More documents due

Last month, Wikileaks published more than 90,000 secret US military documents on the war in Afghanistan.

US authorities criticised the leak, saying it could put the lives of coalition soldiers and Afghans, especially informers, at risk.

Mr Assange has said that Wikileaks is intending to release a further 15,000 documents in the coming weeks.

Ms Rosander said there were two separate allegations against Mr Assange, one of rape and the other of molestation.

She gave no details of the accusations. She said that as far as she knew they related to alleged incidents that took place in Sweden.

Media reports say Mr Assange was in Sweden last week to talk about his work and defend the decision by Wikileaks to publish the Afghan war logs.

The allegations were first reported in the Swedish newspaper Expressen

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11047025

[steevolution]

wikileaks might not be all sweetness and light and fighting the good fight.

here's an interview with a cofounder (now critic) that has been trying to trace wikileaks moneyflows:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20011106-281.html

and of course the Thai internet censors like to stick their fingers in the pie:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/191698/thailand-tries-to-block-wikileaks-website

http://www.latimes.com/technology/sns-ap-as-thailand-wikileaks,0,8495.story

[Stramash]

rape warrant withdrawn within 1 day...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100821/ap_on_hi_te/eu_sweden_wikileaks

:roll:

[Admin_2]

rape warrant withdrawn within 1 day...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100821/ap_on_hi_te/eu_sweden_wikileaks

:roll:

And immediately after Assange goes and releases a shitload more documents, they issue an arrest warrant via Interpol?!

You couldn't get Oliver Stone to write more of a conspiracy theory than this. Underneath that, I think it's crazy that we are finally getting the raw truth regarding what's going on with ALL of our governments, yet some people are still screaming that Assange is a terrorist. Where have all of our brains gone?

On top of that, Thailand has still blocked wikileaks. Jesus McChrist.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/12/01/sweden.interpol.assange/index.html?hpt=T1

[DANNO]

there is a saying....you don't tug on Superman's Cape...

while there many be many illuminating documents ..

.and the vast majority are blah, blah...and having really little value...

However:

the guy most likely has put some of the originators in real copromised positions...I would not want to have certain gov'ts looking to even the score, if I had just pulled thier pants down....

he needs to more than camera shy now

[eagle]

Noam Chomsky talksabout Wikileaks.....

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/30/noam_chomsky_wikileaks_cables_reveal_profound

[SoBeIt]

I LOVE "WikiLeaks".

Pity it's banned in Thailand..

[Admin_2]

I LOVE "WikiLeaks".

Pity it's banned in Thailand..

Whoever thought that it would be illegal to just give out raw news? They aren't even reporting what they think about it, they are just relaying the truth!

[eagle]

I LOVE "WikiLeaks".

Pity it's banned in Thailand..

Whoever thought that it would be illegal to just give out raw news? They aren't even reporting what they think about it, they are just relaying the truth!

Isn't the truth illegal ?

[Bruce551]

TIME Interview with WikiLeaks' Julian Assange,

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2034040,00.html?xid=huffpo-direct

=D

[admin]

I have mixed feelings about Wikileaks. On one hand, I think it's good that they can leak footage of US soldiers doing something wrong or uncovering something that someone else was trying to cover up. On the other hand, they're in the news at the moment for basically being giant d*cks. What good does it do for anyone to know this or that leader has a private nurse with big boobs? Nothing except to embarrass people.

This would be the same as if someone hacked your TF or email account and started posting your private correspondence with other members somewhere for everyone to see.

It's one thing if you come across something illegal or you run across something that is of real value (maybe someone's been hiding a vaccine for HIV) but to release a bunch of documents that contain personal opinions about world leaders simply because it might embarrass one or more parties is childish.

And yes, it's interesting. I found some of the releases entertaining. But my life would have gone on just the same not knowing the information contained in those cables.

One thing that I've seen discussed in regards to this is that WL may knowingly or unknowingly be influencing world events. Now that everyone knows that SA and other Arab countries want someone to bomb the sh*t out of Iran maybe they say "Hey, the cat's out of the bag now, boys. Might as well and get on with dropping a few hundred tons of explosives on them while we still can." WL may have removed the barrier of Arab countries not wanting other Arabs to know they are not only willing to look the other way if the US or Israel attacks Iran but they're begging for someone to do it.

[Admin_2]

I have mixed feelings about Wikileaks. On one hand, I think it's good that they can leak footage of US soldiers doing something wrong or uncovering something that someone else was trying to cover up. On the other hand, they're in the news at the moment for basically being giant d*cks. What good does it do for anyone to know this or that leader has a private nurse with big boobs? Nothing except to embarrass people.

This would be the same as if someone hacked your TF or email account and started posting your private correspondence with other members somewhere for everyone to see.

It's one thing if you come across something illegal or you run across something that is of real value (maybe someone's been hiding a vaccine for HIV) but to release a bunch of documents that contain personal opinions about world leaders simply because it might embarrass one or more parties is childish.

And yes, it's interesting. I found some of the releases entertaining. But my life would have gone on just the same not knowing the information contained in those cables.

One thing that I've seen discussed in regards to this is that WL may knowingly or unknowingly be influencing world events. Now that everyone knows that SA and other Arab countries want someone to bomb the sh*t out of Iran maybe they say "Hey, the cat's out of the bag now, boys. Might as well and get on with dropping a few hundred tons of explosives on them while we still can." WL may have removed the barrier of Arab countries not wanting other Arabs to know they are not only willing to look the other way if the US or Israel attacks Iran but they're begging for someone to do it.

I look at it more as an "us" against "them" scenario here. The People have been lied to over the decades and centuries by our governments. Most recently we've been lied to about this entire "War on Terror." We don't even know to what extent we've been lied to, but we are 100% sure that the WMD thing was a farce, which basically negates any reason that we went into Iraq and the region.

This is our money being spent there, and we also pay the salaries of the officials that we have posted to feed us these lies. Wikileaks is doing way more than showing off people talking behind other's backs. We know that the US has been using the UK to hide illegal cluster bombs, and that there has been pressure from our strong allies to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities.

Just getting into this and dinner is ready...wikileaks isn't even close to finished with their releases as well.

[admin]

I look at it more as an "us" against "them" scenario here. The People have been lied to over the decades and centuries by our governments. Most recently we've been lied to about this entire "War on Terror." We don't even know to what extent we've been lied to, but we are 100% sure that the WMD thing was a farce, which basically negates any reason that we went into Iraq and the region.

This is our money being spent there, and we also pay the salaries of the officials that we have posted to feed us these lies. Wikileaks is doing way more than showing off people talking behind other's backs. We know that the US has been using the UK to hide illegal cluster bombs, and that there has been pressure from our strong allies to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities.

Just getting into this and dinner is ready...wikileaks isn't even close to finished with their releases as well.

That's sort of my whole point. They didn't release anything that "the people" should know. There are no startling revelations about lies being told to the US people or the world. It's basically gossip worthy sort of communications. Nothing that has been released exposes any great deception. People don't have the right to know that Hillary Clinton thinks Tony Blair is a poopy-head. Most of what was released was intended simply to embarrass people who thought they were communicating their private thoughts.

I support it when they release information that the people have a right to know and it's being kept from us. If the US military shoots a reporter we should know about that. Knowing that this leader secretly hates someone else doesn't really stand up to the test of "need to know."

That's why I said I have mixed feelings. This latest release was a huge publicity stunt. It cheapens them in my eyes. And it makes me less likely to believe that they have the maturity or the judgement to know when what they're releasing might get "relatively" innocent people killed (like people working as informants). They're sitting on potentially tens of thousands of death warrants. The Taliban has already come out and said that they're already sifting through the documents to see if they can identify possible US collaborators.

[Admin_2]

I don't consider the US using the UK to hide (really expensive) illegal cluster bombs gossip or something that the people shouldn't know. Nor do I consider the fact that our allies are urging us to bomb Iran when it's our lives and our money spent to go and do such a thing.

A lot of what goes on goes on behind closed doors, which I think is wrong. If they made their decisions and then came out and told us the truth and why they were doing what they were doing, that would be fine (I don't need to hear every little detail). It's unnerving and unsettling that we get lied to on subjects small to big, and Wikileaks is shining a light on that.

This is giving us a small peek into WTF is happening, and there is a lot more that will be shown throughout the coming year...I personally love Wikileaks.