The following is from Fox News:
A massive release from WikiLeaks of the entire unredacted database of U.S. diplomatic cables has brought renewed vigor to those calling for the government to take decisive cyber-action against what some have described as a terrorist organization.
“The latest release of stolen American secrets by the organization WikiLeaks once again proves that they are a terrorist operation that puts the lives of Americans and our allies at risk,” U.S. Rep Candice Miller (R-Mich.) said in a statement in response to the latest leak.
“It is long past time for the Obama administration to take decisive action to shut this criminal operation down and to bring those who steal and release America’s secrets and put our allies at risk to justice,” Miller continued.
But is that even possible?
Yes and no, explained David Aitel, a former NSA cyberoperative, current president and CEO of software security outfit Immunity, and author of “The Hacker’s Handbook.”
“You could theoretically stop WikiLeaks with cyber-operations,” Aitel told FoxNews.com. “However, it would be extremely expensive and difficult. It’s not the sort of thing you do when you have other options available.”
Attempts to shut down the WikiLeaks website and the servers that host it have only seen the site propagate elsewhere. Since an organization like WikiLeaks lives and breathes scattered broadly across the web, there is no single “point of failure,” Aitel explained. Simply trying to shut down certain aspects of the site, such as the domain, wouldn’t do anything.
Such skirmishes have only served to strengthen the group, explained Jeffrey Bernstein, the executive vice president of security and intelligence firm Critical Defence in Washington, D.C.
“If you look at the history, WikiLeaks has had their site deactivated, their payment accounts frozen and hosting providers stripped away,” Berstein told FoxNews.com. “And if you look at all these events, none of them have resulted in any effect on WikiLeaks. They’ve only gotten stronger.”
Indeed, whenever WikiLeaks has been attacked, the number of WikiLeaks sites has actually increased. Could even a government cyber-attack take out such an amorphous yet persistent beast?
“You’re looking at something that would have to be very comprehensive,” Aitel told FoxNews.com. “Identify all the infrastructure and personnel and then target them all at once — ideally so comprehensively that they can never recover.”
This means carefully mapping out the WikiLeaks organization from top to bottom as well as taking out all of their computing equipment, Aitel said. “Everything electronic that Assange uses would have to be touched by an expert.”
There is, of course, a caveat. Such an operation would cost a fortune, Aitel admitted. “Hundreds of millions of dollars is not out of line for hitting a group that is this skilled at what they do.” This is, after all, Assange’s turf.
“The cyberrealm is where WikiLeaks is strongest,” Aitel told FoxNews.com. “It’s well known that Julian Assange and the people he surrounds himself with are technical experts in what they do.”
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One Response
the “collateral murder” video only served the u.s. interests. after seeing it i figured wikileaks was u.s. sponsored.
its the same type of psychological tactic the u.s. police use, that is: showing its frivolous unstoppable abuse, and how nobody can do anything about it.
certain aspects are largely beneficial especially given the u.s. ability to publicize particular incidents.
if wikileaks was legitimate you’d think they’d simply showcase genetic haplogroups’ geopolitical situations throughout history and the massive conspiracy in the archeology/phylogenetics industry that’s handing 6 continents to the western european ydna…(the same majority responsible for completely exterminating 3 continents of ASIAN indians within the last couple hundred years, enslaving africans, same democratic majority in nazi germany, same majority desecrating the middle east etc etc etc etc.) they’d also show how european and all national borders perfectly divide all genetic haplogroups but their own creating a democratic majority in every european region and how they “deal with” the new minorities in those residual states.
sorry for the redundancy its just odd how this blatant situation is continuously ignored, i guess our populations have become “fixed” like their house pets.