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Julian Assange: I'll turn myself in if Chelsea Manning walks
America's most wanted hackers apparently think they've got some leverage over the US government. The ACLU last week began petitioning the Obama administration for a full pardon for Edward Snowden and, on Thursday, Julian Assange announced that he would willingly hand himself over to US authorities. But that's if, and only if, the Feds drop their court-martial conviction of Chelsea Manning.
WikiLeaks revealed private info for 'hundreds' of innocents
WikiLeaks will tell you that it's providing valuable transparency while respecting the privacy of innocent people, but the Associated Press isn't convinced that it's walking that fine line. It just published a report showing that Julian Assange and crew published sensitive details for "hundreds" of innocent people, including financial records, identity details and medical files. Among the examples, it identified teen rape victims. Many of last year's leaked Saudi Arabia cables exposed details that could potentially ruin lives in the conservative country, such as the name of a man arrested for being gay and people who've secretly gone into debt.
WikiLeaks released a cache of malware in its latest email dump
In its rush to let information be free, WikiLeaks has released over 80 different malware variants while publishing its latest collection of emails from Turkey's ruling AKP political party. In a Github post, security expert Vesselin Bontchev has laid out many of the instances of malicious links, most of which came from "run-of-the-mill" spam and phishing emails found in the dump. While WikiLeaks has claimed the emails shed light on corruption within the Turkish government, New York Times reporter Zeynep Tufekci has pointed out that the materials have little to do with Turkish politics and mostly appear to be mailing lists and spam.
Experts believe DNC hackers are behind a larger plot
Although it's not the hack Donald Trump called for, security experts believe the same Russian hacking group allegedly responsible for leaking 20,000 Democratic party emails to WikiLeaks is also behind another attack that hints at an even larger Russian plot to influence American politics. In the weeks before WikiLeaks posted those materials, another cache of emails was posted on a site called DCLeaks.com targeting a top NATO general, former high-ranking intelligence officials and billionaire George Soros' progressive philanthropy called the Open Society Foundation.
DNC executives leave following email hack
The fallout from the Democratic National Committee email hack (and the subsequent posting by Wikileaks) is extending well beyond the resignation of Committee chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz in July. The DNC has revealed that CEO Amy Dacey (above), CFO Brad Marshall and communications director Luis Miranda are resigning in the wake of the breach. The leaked emails showed all three playing favorites during the primaries, disparaging Bernie Sanders and showing a preference for eventual nominee Hillary Clinton.
FBI to investigate Russia's involvement in DNC email leak
On Monday morning, the FBI confirmed it is investigating the Democratic party's email hack that made its way onto WikiLeaks in advance of the party's national convention in Philadelphia this week. Although WikiLeaks has not identified a source, previous reports claimed the emails to and from top DNC officials were leaked by Russian hackers to bolster Donald Trump's campaign.
Hillary Clinton's mobile game lets you run your own campaign
The Democratic National Convention opens today in Philadelphia and there has been some serious inner-DNC turmoil the past few days involving a ton of leaked emails. WikiLeaks published messages that show party officials rallying up against Bernie Sanders, and even making fake Craigslist ads to to target Donald Trump. But the Hillary Clinton campaign is moving full-steam ahead the only way it knows how: by releasing a mobile game.
UN group says Assange should be allowed to walk free
A United Nations panel has sided with Julian Assange and classified his time in London's Ecuadorian Embassy as arbitrary detainment. In light of this, the group believes his "detention should be brought to an end" and rectified with some form of compensation. Yesterday, the WikiLeaks founder vowed to "accept arrest by British police" if the group ruled against him. Conversely, the Australian said he expected "the termination of further attempts to arrest me" if the final report was in his favour.
The teen hackers who cracked the CIA chief's email are back
"Crackas With Attitude," the hacking group that reportedly broke into CIA chief John Brennan's personal email last October (and whose contents have since been released by Wikileaks), have once again made headlines by infiltrating a number of personal accounts owned Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper's.
UK police pull Assange embassy guard after wasting millions waiting
For the past three years, London's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has maintained a 24/7 presence outside the Ecuadorean embassy in an attempt to arrest Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange for questioning over sexual assault charges. It's been a costly operation: the force admits it's already spent more than £9 million (over £10,500 a day) in the hope that the controversial privacy activist will give himself up. Now, it appears, the Met has had enough -- it's removed police guards from the embassy altogether.
WikiLeaks: NSA also targeted Japan, spied on climate change policy
Add Japan to the list of countries that the National Security Agency purportedly spied on. New documents published by WikiLeaks alleges that the NSA kept tabs on Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, his cabinet and companies like Mitsubishi since 2006. In particular, the US paid close attention to Japan's policies around climate change. That includes details about Abe's plan to reduce the country's carbon emissions by half by 2050, which Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) was considering not telling the US about, as well as its confidential G8 summit proposals on climate change. Additionally, the US knew ahead of time that Japan intended to double down on a "sectoral approach" for managing carbon emissions, which focuses on specific carbon goals for sectors like "industry," "residential" and "transportation."
WikiLeaks follows up its Sony post with Saudi cables
Now that WikiLeaks is back to sharing secrets, it's released another cache of information. This dump comes in the form of 70,000 documents from the Saudi Foreign Ministry, which it attributes to a hack by a group calling itself the Yemeni Cyber Army (Saudi Arabia has been involved in a civil war there recently). WikiLeaks says it went through thousands of pages of scanned images released by the group and put them into its searchable database, revealing Saudi government activity to co-opt and control media worldwide with bribes and confrontations. The release also comes three years after its leader Julian Assange sought refuge in an Ecuadorian embassy, avoiding extradition to Sweden on accusations of sexual assault.
WikiLeaks adds 276,394 more leaked Sony docs to its database
WikiLeaks has dumped a second enormous cache of internal documents from Sony into its searchable database. In April of this year, it added internal Sony emails that shined a light on the inner workings of the studio including, the decision making process surrounding projects, employee information, pay discrepancies between male and female actors and racist and derogatory remarks made by Sony executives. This latest addition of 276,394 searchable documents includes calendars, event planning and expense reports. These documents have been available online since the Guardians of Peace breach back in November 2014, WikiLeaks is just making easier to search through the files.
WikiLeaks opens its doors to whistleblowers (again)
After almost five years of internal turmoil and allegations, WikiLeaks is back in secret-sharing business. The site has re-launched a beta version that is accepting anonymous files starting today. Even though Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of the site, continues to live in asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, the online submission system intends to regain its reputation as a secure site for people looking to share information of political and historical significance.
WikiLeaks lets you search Sony's hacked emails (updated)
When a group calling itself the Guardians of Peace hacked Sony Pictures in late 2014, thousands of private emails and information about top executives, actors and Hollywood hotshots hit the 'net. The messages revealed pay discrepancies between male and female stars, and contained copies of films that hadn't yet seen release. Some of these emails contained racist and derogatory comments from Sony Pictures staff, including co-chair Amy Pascal, who consequently left the company in February. Now, all of these emails are available in searchable form on WikiLeaks. Anyone interested in digging through Sony Pictures' email archives can now search by specific term, sender, recipient, attached filename or email ID.
Monitoring Julian Assange has cost the UK government up to £10 million
It's easy to forget that Julian Assange is still cooped up inside London's Ecuadorian embassy. The WikiLeaks founder entered the building back in June 2012 to escape extradition and ever since, Metropolitan Police officers have been stationed outside, waiting patiently just in case he ever decides to leave. It might not sound like the most costly operation, but over the years it's racked up quite a bill for the UK government. Earlier this month the Met revealed that policing the embassy had cost an estimated £9 million up until October last year. That equates to roughly £10,500 per day --- and if you project that forward, it means the entire affair has now crossed the £10 million mark. Of course, this is all merely an approximation, but it further highlights the costs involved in the Assange affair. Last summer, the man himself revealed that he would be leaving the embassy "soon," but since then there's been no sign of his imminent departure. Unless his health or legal circumstances change, the bill for the UK government is only going to increase.
Google: We fought to notify WikiLeaks about email warrants
We still don't know everything about the information Google handed over to the government about three WikiLeaks employees, but a lawyer for the search giant has answered one question about the incident. While a gag order prevented Google from the three staff members, attorney Albert Gidari told the Washington Post it fought the government for four years to overturn it. Apparently, the government allowed Twitter to notify supporters -- including Icelandic politician Birgitta Jónsdóttir -- of surveillance in 2010 and was shocked at their disagreement. Afterwards, it was determined to avoid that, and fought hard to keep gag orders in place. The lawyer claims it's policy to challenge any gag order with an indefinite time period, but as a law professor told the Post -- the targets of the surveillance have the strongest potential case to reduce the scope of a warrant, if only they knew that it was happening. [Image credit: Associated Press]
WikiLeaks furious at Google for keeping government data request a secret
Google is catching some heat from WikiLeaks after the company revealed that it handed over emails and other data on three WikiLeaks employees to the US government. Obviously, that in and of itself would be enough to ruffle the feathers of the activist group. But, to make matters worse, Mountain View handed handed over the data in the spring of 2012. That's right, Google waited over two and a half years to tell Wikileaks about the government request. The warrants, which were served by the FBI in March of 2012, asked for the contents of all emails -- sent, received and draft -- as well as their destination or origin, IP addresses and even the credit cards associated with the accounts. How much of that information Google ultimately delivered is not known, but WikiLeaks has asked the internet giant for some insight.
Politician wants Iceland to become 'the Switzerland of bits'
Birgitta Jónsdóttir was sitting in the audience at the Icelandic Digital Freedom Conference when John Perry Barlow, a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation called for Iceland to "become like the Switzerland of bits." Six years later, Jónsdóttir is trying to make that dream a reality. She was elected to parliament in 2009 and has proven to be one of the most tech savvy and outspoken members of Iceland's government. Last year she was one of three members of the Pirate Party elected at a national level, and she is spearheading efforts like the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, which focuses on protecting whistle blowers, journalists' sources and ensuring the freedom of information. Some of this work has been done in conjunction with the controversial organization headed by Julian Assange, WikiLeaks. While the implementation of many of these ideas has been far from perfect, the country has made great progress towards becoming a safe haven for data, in the same way that Switzerland has become the defacto repository for wealth -- whether it was gained honestly or through less that noble means. And Jónsdóttir has pledged that she will continue to fight. Especially after discovering that she, herself, was the target of surveillance by the US Department of Justice. For more on Birgitta Jónsdóttir check out Motherboard's excellent profile here. Photo courtesy of re:publica 2014/Flickr
WikiLeaks posts the software governments use to spy on dissidents
WikiLeaks' all-or-nothing approach to revealing shady government activity just took a new (if decidedly risky) turn. Julian Assange and crew have posted FinFisher and FinSpy PC, the intrusion software that Australia, Italy, Pakistan and other countries use to break into and spy on people's devices, no matter what platform they're running. The leak site hopes that privacy-minded developers will use the code to improve security and prevent governments from easily cracking down on dissidents; it also puts pressure on Germany to clamp down on FinFisher and live up to its anti-surveillance principles. The strategy may pay off, although there is a worry that unscrupulous downloaders may use the code for more sinister purposes, such as keylogging or webcam monitoring. Let's hope the tools don't fall into the wrong hands. [Image credit: Scott Beale, Flickr]