Wikis

WikiLeaks--public enemy No. 1? (week in review)

WikiLeaks promised its latest release of classified documents to the Internet would be its biggest to date, and the resulting backlash ratcheted up as well.

Despite strident denunciations from Washington officialdom, the whistle-blowing site released about 250,000 sensitive diplomatic cables. Among the files released is a directive signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordering clandestine electronic surveillance of United Nations leadership, including obtaining "security measures, passwords, personal encryption keys, and types of VPN versions used."

The files, which appear to have originated from the U.S. Defense Department's SIPRNET, were provided in advance to news … Read more

WikiLeaks reappears on European Net domains

WikiLeaks re-emerged today on a Swiss Internet domain and later on domains in Germany, Finland, and the Netherlands, sidestepping a move that had in effect taken the controversial site off the Internet.

The group, under heavy criticism in some quarters for publishing U.S. diplomats' classified cables, has been working hard to keep operating amid distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks over the Internet and Amazon's decision to stop hosting WikiLeaks' Web site.

Meanwhile, Swedish authorities said they had re-submitted an international arrest warrant asking U.K. police to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange following sex crime allegations, according to the BBC. … Read more

Amazon: U.S. played no role in WikiLeaks disconnect

Amazon denied today that government pressure played any role in its decision earlier this week to stop hosting WikiLeaks' content.

In a blog post, the online retailer said it terminated its hosting relationship with the controversial site because it became clear that WikiLeaks was violating Amazon's terms of service. That violation occurred, Amazon said, because WikiLeaks did not control all of the rights related to the classified government cables it posted this week. The e-tail giant's post also said it doubted the documents had been carefully redacted as promised and innocent lives could be put at risk as … Read more

Amazon cuts off WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks no longer has a home at Amazon.

The controversial site, which has roused the ire of the U.S. government for leaking classified information, is no longer being hosted by Amazon's Web servers as of yesterday.

WikiLeaks had been tapping into Amazon's EC2, or Elastic Cloud Computing service--including earlier this week. WikiLeaks said yesterday it's now being hosted by servers in Europe, according to Reuters.

In response to its expulsion from Amazon, WikiLeaks tweeted two comments:

"WikiLeaks servers at Amazon ousted. Free speech the land of the free--fine our $ are now spent to employ … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1359: There's a Turkish academic born every day (podcast)

Wikileaks uncovers a treasure trove of diplomatic dish that could disrupt not only the political but social fabric of the world. Online spending finally takes off (again), and Homeland Security confirms it's planning to systematically dismantle the structure of the Internet at the behest of private companies. So, that's awesome. Also, the zombie apocalypse is nigh, led by a phalanx of terrifyingly young mice. --Molly

WikiLeaks: We are under denial-of-service attack

Whistleblower WikiLeaks said today its Web site has been targeted by a massive computer attack, just hours before an expected release of classified U.S. documents.

"We are currently under a mass distributed denial of service attack," WikiLeaks said on its Twitter feed. Efforts to reach the page as of this writing were unsuccessful.

The site released 75,000 confidential files on the war in Afghanistan in July and defied a series of warnings from the Pentagon and other government officials by releasing nearly 400,000 secret files from the Iraq war last month. In a Twitter post … Read more

Army launches video-sharing site for the military

People serving in the U.S. military now have their own Web site where they can upload, share, and watch videos.

Announced yesterday, the new MilTube site has been set up as a safer, more secure alternative to YouTube, with content protected behind firewalls. As such, it's designed to serve the interests of military personnel who want to share videos but also satisfy the concerns of the Department of Defense (DOD), which has never been comfortable with access to commercial social network and sharing sites.

"Video is an extremely powerful tool for storytelling and sharing information among personnel,&… Read more

WikiLeaks promising even bigger leak of secret files

WikiLeaks is promising to release its largest cache of classified files yet.

In a post on Twitter late Sunday night, the WikiLeaks organization wrote: "Next release is 7x the size of the Iraq War Logs. Intense pressure over it for months." An hour later, the group followed with: "The coming months will see a new world, where global history is redefined."

The whistleblower Web site released 75,000 confidential files on the war in Afghanistan in July and defied a series of warnings from the Pentagon and other government officials by releasing nearly 400,000 secret … Read more

Security researcher: I keep getting detained by feds

A security researcher who specializes in online privacy had his laptop and cell phones temporarily seized after returning to the U.S. on an international flight last night.

Moxie Marlinspike told CNET in an interview today that he had been detained and questioned after an international flight last week and appears to be on a federal "watch list" for domestic flights too but doesn't know why.

Asked if he is a volunteer with WikiLeaks, a whistleblower Web site that the U.S. government is seeking to shut down for publishing classified Afghan war files, Marlinspike said: "… Read more

WikiLeaks' war of words (CNET News week in review)

The war of words over WikiLeaks' release of classified military documents is heating up, and some are calling for a full-scale assault on the site.

WikiLeaks defied a series of increasingly stern warnings from the U.S. military and other government officials and released a massive trove of secret documents from the Iraq war last week. Portions of the U.S. military reports, totaling nearly 400,000 classified documents, were leaked to the Internet, including Web sites of some news organizations that had been handed the documents in advance.

The Defense Department had prepared in advance in case the Iraq … Read more