6 ms·

Seems to me like whichever "state party" this was didn't consider the implications behind their actions. Wikileaks has released insurance files in the past, and

by Shank 10y ago

Seems to me like whichever "state party" this was didn't consider the implications behind their actions. Wikileaks has released insurance files in the past, and I wouldn't be surprised if this doesn't, automatically or not, trigger a dead man's switch for more leaks. If you're a state party trying to prevent leaks, silencing Julian is probably the worst way to go about it. It would be arcane not to think of this scenario and plan for it.

venomsnake 10y ago
Don't underestimate the ability of intelligence agencies to lack it ...
BinaryIdiot 10y ago
Seems overblown. Do they really have enough data to dead man switch? I'm unconvinced. Sure they may have something but if it was that good they would have released it by now. Even if whatever they have (if anything) is actually good I would imagine risking it leaking is much better than leaving Julian in position to constantly leak things for a lifetime.
Solinoid 10y ago
So long as we're all speculating, perhaps the state actor who leaked the documents to Wikileaks in the first place didn't agree with Assange's schedule and wants to trigger the dead man's switch. Well, I'm off to read some classic Tom Clancy.
- Roritharr 10y ago
  That sounds sensible, they say it's over 500GB of Documents. The release of such a flood of files would swamp all "public intelligence capacity" until after the election. If you looked at how long it took to find the gold nuggets in the Podesta mails it sounds reasonable willing to force their hand.
  - FireBeyond 10y ago
    I think that any intelligence community that couldn't digest 500GB in full text / keyword searching (keywords that are likely already configured/known) between now and the election would be a pretty sad intelligence community. Apropos of the keyword list, dissecting the corpus could be done in a few hours with a promo-code worth of AWS time.
    - hulahoof 10y ago
      I think "Public Intelligence Capacity" was referring to the ability for use regular members of society to find and verify meaningful information from the leaks.
      - Roritharr 10y ago
        Yes, i thought more of "people on 4chan" than actually any Intelligence Service of any nation state. I'm pretty sure they are mining it, but there would be political fallout from publishing their findings.
varjag 10y ago
Or there's no insurance files and Assange is bluffing. He won't sit on some scoop harming the United States for long, his ego and power trip would force his hand.
- mbreedlove 10y ago
  The insurance files are public. They just have to release the keys. 3.6GB - http://wlstorage.net/torrent/wlinsurance-20130815-A.aes256.torrent http://wlstorage.net/torrent/wlinsurance-20130815-A.aes256.t... 49GB - http://wlstorage.net/torrent/wlinsurance-20130815-B.aes256.torrent http://wlstorage.net/torrent/wlinsurance-20130815-B.aes256.t... 349GB - http://wlstorage.net/torrent/wlinsurance-20130815-C.aes256.torrent http://wlstorage.net/torrent/wlinsurance-20130815-C.aes256.t... 94GB - https://file.wikileaks.org/torrent/2016-06-03_insurance.aes256.torrent https://file.wikileaks.org/torrent/2016-06-03_insurance.aes2... I don't know why they would put out a few hundred gigabytes of fake files. The contents might not be as interesting as people hope, though.
  - countingteeth 10y ago
    "Bluffing." It takes zero effort to distribute a a few hundred gigabytes of encrypted random data, relative to the amount of investigation and speculation as to what if anything is in those files. They are called "insurance." Assange/Wikileaks wanted to deter actions being taken against him. Seems to me as likely as not that there is nothing really there.
    - appleflaxen 10y ago
      the good news is that you don't even need to encrypt your data, if they are random to start with.
      - amelius 10y ago
        That might be tricky. An encrypted file may have some properties a random file does not have in general.
imron 10y ago
> It would be arcane not to think of this scenario and plan for it. And following on from this line of thought, it is therefore not unreasonable to conclude that they did think of this scenario, but feel that the risk of calling Assange's bluff (see the speculation that the insurance files are just random data meant to seed misinformation) is less than the risk of whatever they think he knows about them being leaked. Which makes you wonder, what are they afraid of to consider such action?

by Shank 10y ago

venomsnake 10y ago

Don't underestimate the ability of intelligence agencies to lack it ...

BinaryIdiot 10y ago

Seems overblown. Do they really have enough data to dead man switch? I'm unconvinced. Sure they may have something but if it was that good they would have released it by now. Even if whatever they have (if anything) is actually good I would imagine risking it leaking is much better than leaving Julian in position to constantly leak things for a lifetime.

Solinoid 10y ago

So long as we're all speculating, perhaps the state actor who leaked the documents to Wikileaks in the first place didn't agree with Assange's schedule and wants to trigger the dead man's switch. Well, I'm off to read some classic Tom Clancy.

Roritharr 10y ago
That sounds sensible, they say it's over 500GB of Documents. The release of such a flood of files would swamp all "public intelligence capacity" until after the election. If you looked at how long it took to find the gold nuggets in the Podesta mails it sounds reasonable willing to force their hand.
- FireBeyond 10y ago
  I think that any intelligence community that couldn't digest 500GB in full text / keyword searching (keywords that are likely already configured/known) between now and the election would be a pretty sad intelligence community. Apropos of the keyword list, dissecting the corpus could be done in a few hours with a promo-code worth of AWS time.
  - hulahoof 10y ago
    I think "Public Intelligence Capacity" was referring to the ability for use regular members of society to find and verify meaningful information from the leaks.
    - Roritharr 10y ago
      Yes, i thought more of "people on 4chan" than actually any Intelligence Service of any nation state. I'm pretty sure they are mining it, but there would be political fallout from publishing their findings.

varjag 10y ago

Or there's no insurance files and Assange is bluffing. He won't sit on some scoop harming the United States for long, his ego and power trip would force his hand.

mbreedlove 10y ago
The insurance files are public. They just have to release the keys. 3.6GB - http://wlstorage.net/torrent/wlinsurance-20130815-A.aes256.torrent http://wlstorage.net/torrent/wlinsurance-20130815-A.aes256.t... 49GB - http://wlstorage.net/torrent/wlinsurance-20130815-B.aes256.torrent http://wlstorage.net/torrent/wlinsurance-20130815-B.aes256.t... 349GB - http://wlstorage.net/torrent/wlinsurance-20130815-C.aes256.torrent http://wlstorage.net/torrent/wlinsurance-20130815-C.aes256.t... 94GB - https://file.wikileaks.org/torrent/2016-06-03_insurance.aes256.torrent https://file.wikileaks.org/torrent/2016-06-03_insurance.aes2... I don't know why they would put out a few hundred gigabytes of fake files. The contents might not be as interesting as people hope, though.
- countingteeth 10y ago
  "Bluffing." It takes zero effort to distribute a a few hundred gigabytes of encrypted random data, relative to the amount of investigation and speculation as to what if anything is in those files. They are called "insurance." Assange/Wikileaks wanted to deter actions being taken against him. Seems to me as likely as not that there is nothing really there.
  - appleflaxen 10y ago
    the good news is that you don't even need to encrypt your data, if they are random to start with.
    - amelius 10y ago
      That might be tricky. An encrypted file may have some properties a random file does not have in general.

imron 10y ago

> It would be arcane not to think of this scenario and plan for it. And following on from this line of thought, it is therefore not unreasonable to conclude that they did think of this scenario, but feel that the risk of calling Assange's bluff (see the speculation that the insurance files are just random data meant to seed misinformation) is less than the risk of whatever they think he knows about them being leaked. Which makes you wonder, what are they afraid of to consider such action?