WikiLeaks publishes security think tank emails (We're the security risk!)

[No Elephants]

WikiLeaks publishes security think tank emails

ONDON | Sun Feb 26, 2012 11:02pm EST

(Reuters) - The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks began publishing on Monday more than 5 million emails from a U.S.-based global security think tank, apparently obtained by hackers. {Strategic Forecasting Inc (Stratfor) of Austin, Texas.}

<snip>

Stratfor describes itself as a subscription-based publisher of geopolitical analysis with an intelligence-based approach to gathering information.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told Reuters: "Here we have a private intelligence firm, relying on informants from the U.S. government, foreign intelligence agencies with questionable reputations, and journalists."

"What is of grave concern is that the targets of this scrutiny are, among others, activist organizations fighting for a just cause."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/27/us-wikileaks-stratfor-idUSTRE81Q01Q20120227

From the OP, Anonymous seems like the likely source.

A Stratfor spokesman did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday evening in the United States.

Stratfor's chief executive and founder, George Friedman, warned on January 11 that emails had been stolen but said the thieves would be hard pressed to find anything significant.

"God knows what a hundred employees writing endless emails might say that is embarrassing, stupid or subject to misinterpretation ... As they search our emails for signs of a vast conspiracy, they will be disappointed."

People linked to the loosely organized Anonymous group of activist hackers took credit. "Congrats on the amazing partnership between #Anonymous and #WikiLeaks to make all 5 million mails public," AnonSec Tweeted. AnonSec is one of several Twitter accounts used to promote and organize activities associated with An

[Leopolds Ghost]

1. On the one hand, this is going to be interesting to see what happens...

On the other hand, knowing what we know about Beltway Bandits, George Friedman's statement is probably correct.

It's the little agencies that worry me, the giant bureaucratic "security contractors" worry me when they get funding to create new surveillance technologies, they aren't the ones hired to actually use it, just pontificate on "likely threats" in puff pieces for gov't and corporate officials.

Data aggregators, in other words...

[No Elephants]

2. I don't take him at his word.

[Leopolds Ghost]

3. I am aware of No Such

Agency :yoiks: that already processes everything on a daily basis (heh, they don't have to with this website, Google does it for 'em)

Thanks to the eastern version of

wikipedia is my very best friend!

Of course, this is all common knowledge now, thanks to the articles in Harpers etc... due to the whistleblowers the Administration is now going after... not that it wasn't well known in Beltway circles before then.

The issue is not having enough people to make sense of it, which is what Facebook software can now be used for. Most of the ponies that work for these large private firms are just white-collar functionaries. 99% types working for the Man... paid to "report" on stuff that is already public knowledge. It's the software that worries me.

[No Elephants]

4. Your technical knowledge is way beyond mine, so whatever you said, I believe you!

[Leopolds Ghost]

5. Not really, actually. I know next to nothing about this stuff but

I used to live in the area, and many computer geeks live in the area... On this blog and other places... So it was always widely known on the Internet because the mechanisms in use are pretty central to how the Net is maintained. Everypony who was either an activist, civil servant, or computer geek (that covers a substantial portion of the middle class in the DC area) knew about this stuff long before it was discussed in Harpers and NYT (leading to the 2008 "reform" act that was meant as an ex post facto law making it effectively legal to monitor all domestic communications -- note that this blog doesn't count as it's a permanently archived public site).

Look up the actress on wikipedia, now look for the other definition... there's one on either coast... take the one that is East not West (as an example)

Now look what's nearby... directly across the street as it happens, but you can quickly tell what else is in the area... Now you know why that entire corridor exists (and the similar one out in Silicon Valley where the west one is located.) Why do you think it's costing them so much money to dig a tunnel there? They accidentally cut into "the line" at one point... unnamed guys rushed out there lickety-split... it was a big joke in the newspaper.

And that's just the agency everyone's familiar with. You know, for "good guy vs. bad guy" stuff. They aren't the ones you got to be worried about if you're an American and an activist, not a "bad guy". Agt. Mike works for No Such OTHER Agency, on the other side of the river. That's the one that was the subject of the Harpers and NYT expose. Everypony knew about them, too, since the 70s. They even have a museum.

[No Elephants]

6. I barely know how to turn my laptop on and off, but I do know who Mae West was!

All the rest, though is still way over my head.

But, thanks for trying. I appreciate the effort.

[Leopolds Ghost]

7. Heh, I was trying to be non-specific.

You can learn all about it on Wikipedia. No special insight required. :-)

One of the sources listed for the article is especially interesting, but
I don't think I'll Link to it here.

Isn't this smiley face cool? I found it just today. Try rubbing his head. :-)

[KoKo]

8. I have some "current" experience with "interesting things." (Warning Hyperbolic Rant)

Had a computer crash on 2/10...After all my efforts failed at getting my computer to get rid of two "Rootkit" invasions that AVG found and could not get rid of (even with several Safe Mode start ups) and using Malwarebytes (Safe Mode) that found the same two but could not delete or put in "vault"..and two days of doing every other trick I knew to get rid of them...I had to call in a Tech Guy --from a group our Small Business group had been using for years. But, this was a NEW GUY they'd hired. What my computer looked like after he left was a huge shock to my mental faculties! :wtf:

Everything was geared towards FACEBOOK/TWITTER/CHATZILLA/GAMES/TOOLBARS and all kinds of stuff that I saw as creepy. My Firefox was now upgraded way past the versions I was comfortable (5.6 or something)to Firefox 10.03.0 which required me to try to go through HOOPS to find the settings for privacy, search, history, cookies back to what I was comfortable with. I still haven't got the security of Browsing I had with my old version.

My "AVG Free Home Use" was filled with Toolbars and Facebook/Twitter/Google Analytics and other stuff pushed at me.) BUT, a week after he left that version of AVG FREE that he installed crashed and left my computer unprotected. It turns out the version he put on was not compatible with the Latest Version of Firefox. The Freeware AVG I just installed...I managed to get rid of the Toolbars and the extra stuff they pushed by just un "X"-ing boxes on install.

Anyway...to make a long story short...the Upgrade of DU-2 to DU-3 and the Spyware tracking and "Terms of Sale" of my Data to ouside parties (if DU is Bought Out)...which is openly stated on the "TOS" for DU-3...plus my exasperating experience with a computer crash and all new systems up...has led me to believe that somehow after Jan 1,2011 we are now being inundated with ways SPYWARE/MALWARE...MALICIOUS PEOPLE can track us down forever. Pushing Facebook/Twitter is now on every site I visit that has more than 500 people or so visiting. It's like "In Your Face" pushing of Commercial or Fake Scam/Malware Sites whether you use Google, Bing, Yahoo or even newer sites for Search.

It's like everything we DO is now CATALOGUED/PROCESSED and EXPLOITED whether it's FreeWare/PaidWare or WHATEVER WE DO.. SIRRI, GOOGLE MAPS/SEARCH...Cell PHONES...ISP..etc. We are being tracked from Birth to Death and every move in between. There's BIG MONEY TO BE MADE of THIS!

And...I am angry about it. But.....no matter what I do...I can't keep ahead of them.

[Leopolds Ghost]

10. Firefox went from Version 3 to Version 10 in one year to keep up with Google's new monopolistic

And privacy destroying all-in-one browser search engine package.

Google's fully invested in the new policy of trying to rapidly upgrade HTML to steer users onto its cloud computing platforms, like Microsoft wanted to do in the 90s when Gore and others sought to bust up Microsoft for monopoly... Apple is now making computers (by the same manufacturers that make "competing" PC technology) that come with no internal hard drive so you have to pay extra for an external drive or use their cloud computing online drives instead. Interestingly, the only way to ensure complete privacy with online cloud drives is to engage in the same secure computing techniques that the gov't, in the name of national security, is striving to crack open using universal web identifiers, according to articles I've read here on DU. Bill Gates and the Administration both apparently support the effort to have a universal passkey identifier for accessing your computer and the web

[KoKo]

11. Well..that's even worse. Interesting thing...I had to call Earthlink

to get my E-Mail back and they were pushing putting everything on THEIR CLOUD...so that if I ever had a crash I would have everything available. I had no idea that Earthlink was into cloud...but, I feel sure it hovers over India ...since all their tech support is Indian...and in our household we have to do deep breathing exercise before we call them...given our past experience of a couple hours on the line, finally asking for a supervisor after getting botched info from them.

Why do I stay with Earthlink? I hate Time-Warner worse... It's all a headache and what you tell me makes me wonder if any of us are ever going to be able to "free roam"...the great plains and far reaching, unexplored, horizons of the internet (that we knew so many years ago) in the near future and going forward."\

I think the "shut down" is coming for the "little people with no voice" for the commercial sites that provide much to us. I just hope that someon enterprising can come up to compete like our "Free Public Libraries" managed to do for a century for those who didn't have money or access to still be able to read. But, with the Commercial Conglomerates that are now running everything...I do wonder if that's possible, anymore. :-( And our FreeWare...is being Commercialized, also. After all...they have to make money like the rest of us do.

[KoKo]

9. "Google Analytics" and "Facebook/Twitter." that's more than is needed

plus the other Google Stuff...and our lives are all an "open book" for anyone to check out of the library, take home and read.