Could WikiLeaks Get Your Secrets?
How safe is your sensitive data and how do you hire?
Vol. 7, Issue No. 5 | March 8, 2011 By Denny Hatch
|
IN THE NEWS
Bradley Manning Charged With 22 New Counts, Including Capital Offense
The Army has filed 22 new counts against suspected WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, among them a capital offense for which the government said it would not seek the death penalty.
The charges, filed Tuesday but not disclosed until Wednesday, are one count of aiding the enemy, five counts of theft of public property or records, two counts of computer fraud, eight counts of transmitting defense information in violation of the Espionage Act, and one count of wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the internet knowing it would be accessible to the enemy. The aiding-the-enemy charge is a capital offense, potentially carrying the death penalty. Five additional charges are for violating Army computer-security regulations.
—Kim Zetter
WIRED, Mar. 2, 2011
In the spring of 2010, U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, serving with the 10th Mountain Division in Iraq, hacked into U.S. Government computers and allegedly downloaded almost 750,000 military and diplomatic documents.
All of them were confidential—and many classified in various categories of “eyes only” and “secret”—that would not only prove embarrassing to American and foreign diplomats, but also could put at risk the lives of American and indigenous operatives in war zones and sensitive posts around the world.
Pfc. Manning allegedly handed over this massive trove of internal state secrets to a shadowy, gaunt 6-foot-2 Australian agitator—Julian Assange, proprietor of the notorious information sieve, WikiLeaks.com.
When Assange and his cohorts at WikiLeaks began releasing this sensational material to the media, they professed indignation and outrage at the theft. Whereupon newspapers and 200 websites published the stuff (in the interests of “transparency”), gleefully dumping a bucket of gore all over the diplomatic and military people and organizations of countries all around the globe.
Julian Assange is now in a desperate struggle with British authorities to avoid extradition to Sweden where he faces rape charges. A Swedish jail is not a pleasant prospect. However, his real fear is that Sweden will turn him over to U.S. authorities.
For the past seven months, Pfc. Manning has been held in a Marine brig in Quantico, Va., where is kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day with little exercise, no possessions and very limited contact with the outside world.
With 22 new counts against Pfc. Manning reported last week, the federal government threw down the gauntlet:
ADDITIONAL CHARGE I: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ. ARTICLE 104.
THE SPECIFICATION: In that Private First Bradley E. Manning, U.S. Army, did, at or near Contingency Operating Station Hammer, Iraq, between on or about 1 November 2009 and on or about 27 May 2010, without proper authority, knowingly give intelligence to the enemy, through indirect means.
Giving intelligence to the enemy is capital offence.
Is a very bruised and angered U.S. government setting the stage for trials that would put Pfc. Bradley Manning and Julian Assange in front of firing squads?
In terms of our lives and careers, this grand theft and leak of sensitive information has huge ramifications for everyone in the private sector—hiring practices, safeguarding of company secrets and who has access to them.
Takeaways to Consider
- “Agonize over only one thing: hiring.” —George Mosher, Founder, National Business Furniture
- “According to a 2009 Proofpoint study of 220 leaders at American companies with over 1,000 employees, 38% employ staff to read or otherwise analyze the content of outgoing email, compared to 29% last year. Why the big increase in surveillance? 34 percent said their businesses had been affected by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information, up from 23% in 2008.” —Harvard Business Publishing's The Daily Stat
- E-mails are forever. Even though you have deleted or trashed e-mail, it lives—somewhere in your own computer and/or in the company server and/or out in the Internet.
- When a computer is confiscated, programs exist that can reveal not only every document, but also your every keystroke and deletion.
- To be absolutely safe, have nothing in your workplace computer that you would hate to see on the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper—no complaints, no gossip, no hand-wringing, no dirt.
- No Secret Data should be held in PCs, BlackBerrys, iPhones or laptops, but rather secured and “owned” by a trustworthy employee who releases it on a need-to-know basis only. This data should be returned to the “owner” after use, with no copies allowed.
- All requests and orders for any data from a stranger should be routinely refused until due diligence and absolute proof of that organization’s integrity is assured. For example, in February 2005, it was disclosed that ChoicePoint Inc., sent data on more than 100,000 people nationwide—names, addresses, Social Security numbers and financial information—to Los Angeles-area scammers, posing as check-cashing businesses, insurance companies and debt collection services.
Websites Related to Today's Edition
WikiLeaks WebsiteTo Publish Leaks Or Not to Publish?
A Note to Readers: The Decision to Publish Diplomatic Documents—The New York Times
Bradley Manning Website
Online Contact that Turned in Bradley Manning
Bradley Manning: 22 New Charges
Assange-Manning, No Link Found
Judge says WikiLeaks' Assange can be extradited
Dealing With Assange and the WikiLeaks Secrets
Executives at Renault Suspended in Secrecy Breach
Rajat Gupta and Wall Street's Biggest Insider Trading Scandal Ever
Chiesi Pleads Guilty in Galleon Insider Case
FBI said that 160 laptop computers were lost or stolen in less than four years
The Cloud: Battle of the Tech Titans
Gmail Reset Erases Messages? Users Report All Emails DELETED
Companies Mentioned:
 |
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
