Wikileaks and Julian Assange.

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Making the news this week is one Julian Assange of Wikileaks who was arrested by London police this Thursday after Ecuador waved his asylum they had previously  granted. Assange long a thorn in the side of US intelligence services faces extradition to the United States of America where a sample charge of attempting to hack into US  Defence dept. computers and obtain classified material, more serious charges are likely to be brought after extradition.

What to make of Julian Assange and Wikileaks ? Whistleblower ? Frontman  ? Truth outer ? Journalist ? Guess it depends on what side of the fence you are on. He published a account of War Crimes committed in Iraq , US state Dept diplomatic cables to their embassies across the world, an Archive of Hilary Clinton emails however they were obtained. Wikileaks getting involved with USA Presidential election in 2016 was a mistake, no thanks were likely from the Republican party and he irked US intelligence services plenty.

The truth is a scarce commodity with the press- newspapers, TV , radio and online media. Its tends to be half the story a lot of the time, omission and  out and out lies quiet a lot do. The establishment won’t be long in “shutting you up”.. they will dig dirt on you, invent it if necessary and there is always out and out intimidation and murder.

Mr Assange made himself a target and they concocted a rape charge in Sweden to “get” him. One wonders if Mr Assange knew the risks of what he was doing and if his sponsor will be able to “protect” him from lengthly incarceration and possible execution. They will have to make quiet a fuss to protect him. Truth is scare but needs telling, possibly from people like Julian Assange. One hopes he survives the present episode.

Wikileaks & CIA Cyber-warfare

Wikileaks reveals CIA hacking tools in so far as publishing documents which they released on the their website on the seventh of March. Hacking isn’t a new phenomena and all intelligence agencies are likely to have methods to hack modern technology to find material on people who they have under surveillance. It may come as a surprise to some people but pimply faced teenagers are not the only source of malware on your computer, your mobile phone and lately your tv (smart tvs largely sold by samsung). It is quite a wide net when it comes to intelligence gathering and cyber-warfare,  they seem to want to keep tabs on the general population rather than targeted suspects who would be easier to “bug” or wiretap. Also infecting computer systems would allow them to be taken down in the event of hostilities breaking out, power generation and communications are likely targets and present a significance security threats to most nations. It is reputed that all software has bugs in it which can be activated by a certain sequence being sent to the computer which has been infected. Though I am unable to prove it but as they say “bugs in the software flash the message there’s something out there”. Protection of vital computer systems is a essential component of national security in the event of cyber-war. More measure have to be taken to protect people’s privacy, financial details and more industrial applications. Computer systems require through examination with both the software and hardware being scrutinized. Both hardware and software are reputed to come with “back doors” -remote administration  which are easily exploited by hackers. Manufacturers have to take seriously computer security and not have people surprised by packages installed on their computers. Technology has enriched people lives by letting them do more but sometimes maybe the less technology is the better option.

links of interest

The Hacker News.