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Hosting a Highly Inflammatory Document?
IndianaKim writes "I have been asked if I can host or assist in hosting a highly inflammatory document that reflects poorly on a Police Department. I want to help, but I also do not want the headache and possible subjection to search warrants and/or illegal searches. The document is so inflammatory that it could interest the FBI and DoJ and cause them to investigate the government officials involved. I live in the same county, but not the same city, and therefore could be subject to a search (legal or not) by some of these government agencies. I have been asked to host it on a server outside of the US. At this time, I do not have the ability to do that, but I could set it up if I needed to. My question is: would you host it if you were asked? How would you go about protecting the document and yourself?"
Wikileaks dude
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Assuming the document is small, you could install Xerobank (formerly TorPark) and create an account on Wikileaks and upload it to Wikileaks through the Tor onion router. Your anonymity would be assured in a hilariously sound manner.
Your website need do nothing more than link to Wikileaks and ponder how it got there.
That would be my plan of action. I would also be careful with all the machines/devices used to transfer that file.
Depending on how important/inflammable this document is, I might look into buying a cheap 20GB laptop hard drive, installing ubuntu, going to a star bucks, doing the above and then "disposing" of the drive and all media so that there are no questions. Sorry to sound like Harvey Keitel on Pulp Fiction but
My question is: would you host it if you were asked? How would you go about protecting the document and yourself?
It depends on who is asking me. There are maybe 5 or 6 people in my life that if they approached me with this request and said it was serious and said it had to be me hosting it, I would do it no questions ask. I would not read the document, I would stop them from explaining to me what is the document, I would do it and give them the link. I would then go directly to my lawyer and have a small chat with him. Then I would grab a glass of Chivas Regal and put on a record and take the battery out of my cell phone and relax.
My work here is dung.
To borrow from Captain Braxton. And, To borrow from /. and Terminator 2, and more from Trek you will need to start with:
-- 5 million sun-block,
-- super-mega tinfoil hat, polymorphic
-- Federation Timeship Aeon, mk IV
-- Subspace polarization inhibitor, non-time-domain-collapsing
-- Fluidic Gateway to unlimited supply of Ketracel White
-- Vidian anti-aging/anti-phaging cream
because one, more or all of the cogizant agencies may have reasons to knock your ass across 5 timelines, 27 dimensions, dozens of gender and species reassignments, and multiple states of matter...
GOOD LUCK!
(I survived my own ordeal, but it was QUITE a harrowing experience eludi$_#$#@#*_#@*_*$_*&#&_$(+$%$)
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Tor + various upload sites
hate to say it, but spam forums (signed up w/ Tor) w/ a random link to above suggestion
But your (possible) name and location are already on teh intertubes relating to a about-to-be-released inflammatory document.
from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
NT
Republican leadership = Idiocracy
Post it on /b/. You can trust Anon. He's from the internet.
I think we know where to send the black helicopters!
i always found it odd that flammable and inflammable mean exactly the same thing...
do not read this line twice.
Just buy a new domain, give it anonymous contact info and stick it on a free webhost somewhere offshore.
1 in 4 Maine children in struggle with hunger.
Now I'm curious. Be sure to post another story pointing to the wikileaks url once it goes up.
It's posts like this that make me fall in love with /. all over again!!
net cafe hundreds of miles away using an onion routing anonymizing proxy. Problem solved.
Bad idea. Most cyber cafes i've seen have cctv.
More than likely, if it's that bad that you'd end up investigated or arrested or even "disappeared" it's not worth it. If they've managed to keep it hidden, they can cover it up and blame you for falsifying if they want to.
Just don't do it. If they're corrupt enough that what you say exists really exists, they'll either trip up and fall into the public eye, or destroy you and have people rally to their side, not yours.
1. No one will care and this won't be an issue.
2. Someone out there will find it, talk about it, and then that one hosting site you use will have its pre-allocated bandwidth tapped out in mere hours. If that happens, it won't matter because the site pointed to the youtube, facebook, myspace, and the torrent.
So basically, -1 troll/offtopic is really slashdots way of saying "I hate that you thought of something before me."
Post it everywhere.
Don't hide.
Print that shit out and nail it to the wall, Martin Luther style.
Yet another reason for us all to be using it.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
"Some say that power comes with responsibility, but this is not correct. Freedom is responsibility, and if one fails to be responsible for their own freedom then those who claim 'power' will become responsible for your freedom, and both will be taken from you." - me
So basically because you fear the ability of law enforcement to abuse their powers in ways that may harm you personally, you are afraid to host this document that I have to presume relates to revealing some potentially illegal police activities? The press refuses to carry this story? And people say they live in a free society, when they are free only to be afraid of the power of government??
Let me say this. If I had such documents, well, speaking from their presumed perspective and content, I would choose to host them. I would do so proudly. And I would share them with others to host as well, openly, without question. I would make sure they were also mirrored of course on something outside the U.S. as I do have resources for that. But I would happily apply my own resources to host them also.
Fascism happens when the efficiency and fear of the state becomes more important than the freedom and rights of the people.
4Chan is where it's at... just scan it and post it.
Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know. ~Lao Tzu
...I can think of a few interesting ways. they all start with cleaning the document of any metadata which points to you, then:
1. drop it on many small thumbdrives around your city/county & watch just about everyone get arrested.
2. buy a fax machine, find a landline no one's watching & fax to everywhere for which you can find a fax number.
3. zip it, label it as the latest Britney single and put it on limewire or rapidshare
www.purevolume.com/martyd
HavenCo used to host anything but child porn. They have a few more restrictions now but I think they would have no issue host criticism of a police department. They are based out of Sealand, an independent micronation sitting on a former World War II Maunsell Sea Fort.
They don't.
Inflammable is when it's MORE than Flammable.
Just ask the Infamous El Guapo.
http://downwithpants.org Overthrow the tyranny of your pants
Grow some would you?
Infinite number of places you could upload it. If it's of any interest, you can be guaranteed that the copying/rehosting will preserve it.
Mail it to a journalist or two from a paper that might be interested if you want to speed up the process.
This document is "so inflamatory it might interest the DoJ or FBI"?
Then send it to them. Or, if it's valid at all, send it to the closest trustworthy newspaper you can find. Or if nothing else, HIRE A CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER so you know where the line is where you need to stop -- and so you know what to do if an illegal search comes up.
A random document on the internet means NOTHING to an investigative agency. You might as well walk up and make a random phone call from a stolen cell phone. It's not even probable cause to investigate if you don't have a name to go with the charge.
Go home, read the Constitution again, and decide if you want to help someone throw mud for zero effect, or if you want to actually see change. Our forefathers fought and died for our right to speak what we believe to be true; you are a coward if you will only exercise that when there is zero effect.
(Oh, and for the main question: no, I wouldn't. And I wouldn't try hosting it overseas, either; few countries have as strong a free speech protection as the United States.)
Depending on how important/inflammable this document is, I might look into buying a cheap 20GB laptop hard drive, installing ubuntu, going to a star bucks, doing the above and then "disposing" of the drive and all media so that there are no questions.
You could probably sell the hard drive on eBay, make a few bucks. I wouldn't worry about scrubbing it tho. Nobody checks those things.
http://downwithpants.org Overthrow the tyranny of your pants
Isn't this slashdot article enough to cause problems for you? If corrupt police suspect you have information that could harm them, then what is to stop them from causing problems for you? They're already corrupt aren't they?
I would say put it on wikileaks as fast as you can.
I'm not a lawyer though, so perhaps there are reasons to not do this? Perhaps contact a lawyer first. Give them a copy of the documents.
Why use Xerobank, a commercial service? I recommend installing Tor (which is free) and accessing Wikileaks only through their .onion address, http://gaddbiwdftapglkq.onion/. That way you don't use any exit servers, so nobody can sniff your traffic or even know that you're talking to Wikileaks except Wikileaks themselves (who won't know who you are).
"Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
Bittorrent would be wonderful.
It's all quite easy if you can find an obscure pay phone that still works and will let you make 800 calls. Get yourself an acoustic coupler and find one of those free dial up accounts. Set up some sort of old laptop, that you found in the trash, to dial in using a script. You could also have it dial in to a bunch of different services to keep them off your track for awhile. Next set up a dyna DNS account and set up the laptop to update it. Hide the laptop somewhere in the phone booth. You will also need to steal power for the laptop from somewhere so get a dc-dc converter and steal the power off of the phone line going to the booth. No one ever uses pay phones anymore but you might want to leave something nasty in the booth to keep the homeless out.
That's assuming there's nothing in the document itself that only a particular author would write. That's how they ended up identifying the unibomber.
Well the first thing I would do is post about it on Slashdot under my username. That way the cops could have absolutely no way to trace it back to me.
A Magic the Gathering Article and Forum Aggregator
You could use an existing laptop with an os installed on a flash drive or a live cd, buy a cheap $10 usb wifi adapter and chuck both the cd + wifi in the trash for about $20. Just a fyi ;)
Certain lawyers have faced a very similar issue. They have learned to live outside of cities and counties that they sue. They have also learned to use drivers and never, ever drive in those cities and counties.
I also had one friend whose home was burned when her husband ran for county sheriff.
All in all it is better to be rather remote from the people who may feel endangered by your actions. It it involves crime it may be organized and deadly.
Simple, either you host it cause you feel that the document is important enough. Or you don't.
Important enough for what? Important enough to justify the risk. What you call a simple choice isn't. To make that decision, the OP has to know what the possible consequences of their actions are, and the chances they will have to face them, and weigh that against the importance of the information in question. To know the risk, they have to weigh their options for publishing, the chances of adverse consequences being linked to the amount of personal exposure involved in going public. A person might perform an act that has a chance of landing them in jail, but might decline to do so if it were certain they would be imprisoned for it.
What seems to you like a case of "not having the balls" seems to me like someone weighing their options and trying to make a rational decision.
Best to do it from the computer of someone that you genuinely despise. This makes it a 2-for-1 when the cops and their associates go after the other guy.
That ain't liver; that's beef kidney!
Depending on how important/inflammable this document is, I might look into buying a cheap 20GB laptop hard drive, installing ubuntu, going to a star bucks, doing the above and then "disposing" of the drive and all media so that there are no questions.
You could probably sell the hard drive on eBay, make a few bucks. I wouldn't worry about scrubbing it tho. Nobody checks those things.
Well, I have several problems with that. One is that it is uncharacteristic of me to sell something on ebay. Especially hardware like that. This could be easily seen as odd behavior leading them to the drive. The other is that it's probably becoming common to check drives for interesting stuff when you buy them on eBay. The other is that I don't care about the money a 20GB drive would net me if I'm dealing with the law.
..."
No, I am afraid my course of action would be to vigorously scrub the drive, take the drive apart and spot weld the platters together to make a set of ugly ass coasters with magnets attached as feet to the coaster. I would keep the set in plain view in my living room. Then one day when a guest inquired about them I could say, "Funny story
My work here is dung.
How appropriate considering the other story today.
Well said. You do what's right even if it means it won't be easy. The good news is, we live in a country where the chances of being assassinated by government officials is not as great.
My opinion to the submitter...
Could mean some headaches, so prepare for them by consulting with an attorney.
More importantly, if this is something that the FBI or other agencies are going to be interested as you say, then why not go straight to them?
Don't put something out on the internet because it's cool to do so. That's not the right way. Take it through the proper legal channels. Then if it doesn't go forward, you put it out in the wild.
You didn't give details, but it is possible that leaking the information could hinder any potential investigation that the FBI or whoever may need to conduct to get more evidence.
Dual Opteron < $600
For this to work you would also have to change your wireless interface's Ethernet MAC (hardware) address. By default this is a vendor-specific code that is probably unique enough that it could be used to link you to the upload. This would require that (a) the coffee shop kept some kind of long-term logging on their wireless device, (b) the authorities were able to trace the upload to the coffee shop, and (c) the police had some kind of suspicion of you already. All are improbable, but none are impossible.
Most wireless cards will let you change the hardware address. I'll leave instructions for how to do that to the enterprising googler.
The alternative is to use a cheap throwaway laptop with wireless, or a disposable wireless ethernet card.
(Yes, it's paranoid, but so is the original question.)
Or email it to cryptome.
It depends what you're worried about. If you're concerned about it being proven that you were part of the distribution of the document, then any of the suggestions posed so far will work. Buy a new hard drive, encrypt it, receive the document to it from a USB device (destroy the USB device afterwards). Upload to Wikileaks from the encrypted drive. Destroy the drive.
However if you are more concerned with being thought to have been part of the distribution (as that is, after all, what's going to get you raided) then you have a bigger problem. You don't care so much whether in 5 years anybody can show you were involved, you only care about right now, can you stay under the radar.
I would build a suitable alibi (get out of town) and then receive the document from the source. Afterwards, have a change of heart, convince the source that you are NOT going to host it anywhere, convince them you have destroyed the media, and lay low for a while.
Then upload it to WikiLeaks at your leisure. If your source is convinced that you didn't upload it the Man hopefully won't think so either.
irony - noun : the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning
http://downwithpants.org Overthrow the tyranny of your pants
Have them e-mail it to everybody in their lists, somebody is bound to get it.
Good grief you are paranoid. People spread misinformation and lies about my department on a daily basis. No one cares. You really think some information of questionable validity about some local agency is going to result in a super-secret national alliance of corrupt local agency hit squad coming to find you and search your mom's basement only to have any evidence obtained thrown out for a 4th amendment violation? You watch too many movies, dude.
Except that would only lead them to the author, not the person who uploaded it. And if this person's trusting you that much, I doubt they'd give you up to the cops, especially when they're *the author*. Who cares about the distributor at that point, unless you're going for a "salt the earth" strategy.
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
I don't agree with you. If we would think like that nothing would ever get done. If the brave men in WW2 had that spirit of mind I would be speaking German. If you know that you have something in your hands that can be important for others you should not hide that information. If you have proof there are corrupt cops, it's your duty as a person to do everything within your powers to make sure the word gets out. If you don't you can make that same document public 5 years from now and it will still be accurate. And that would be 5 long years for everyone who felt victim to whatever that documents says.
to the library, upload it to wikileaks from there.
Put it on a thumb drives and send them to news sources.
Anon delivery it to the AG.
DO all of those.
Or get a lawyers and find out what you can do and how to behave and what to say if the police come to your door.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I don't know whats in it- but most likely I'd refer to another (outside alleged offenders power circle) person/ region to host. Though, wikileaks does not sound bad at all. Getting on "the people in charge" bad side, when they already have been doing wrong is like a neon sign for trouble. If they've done real bad shit- they are willing to do it to you too or far worse, and justify it with a signature, paperwork and someones pay raise. Careful what you say- like others have pointed out- posting here isn't necessarily a good option. You were vague- yet sometimes tiny scattered footprints lead to a path. Also- most importantly, follow your gut. If it seems like something that needs to be done, do it. Just do it safe, do it right and do it the best you can. There is only one chance at this: once it is out it is out.
Word.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I think you're being overly harsh on the guy. You may be an "active member of Amnesty" but he isn't. Your criticism may be better aimed at the person who made the document - he could post it himself, he could publicly email it to everyone he knows, but instead he's asking someone else to release it for him so he can remain hidden. He's asking a friend to put himself on the line to do something he won't do himself publicly (and I'm not blaming him for it either). The poster has balls enough to come here publicly asking for advice. At least he's trying to help and asking for advice on how best to do it. Your criticism of him is undeserved.
Depending on how important/inflammable this document is, I might look into buying a cheap 20GB laptop hard drive, installing ubuntu, going to a star bucks, doing the above and then "disposing" of the drive and all media so that there are no questions.
They are most likely to be traced by the mac address of the laptop they use at starbucks so I would suggest disposing of the wifi device as well.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Inflammable means only flammable when in something else
I would have started the process by posting as an AC to Slashdot, rather than a name that has an e-mail address attached to it.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
You don't want to sell it there, you want to buy the 20gig hard drive there. Or, go to a local used computer store. They've probably got 300 10-20 gig laptop hard drives laying around collecting dust.
Also, if you don't have first-hand knowledge of the facts in this "inflammatory document" be sure you trust the person presenting it to you with your life (or at least your freedom). If the contents of the document point to a single person (or even 20 persons) who could be the only ones who could have made this document public, it's trivial for a police department, even a local bunch of Barneys, to sweat the 20 people until the one who gave you the document also gives you up.
I'm inclined to believe that a journalist is the best person to make this public. They also tend to have impressive backbone when it comes to keeping a whistleblower's name secret. In fact, it's what they live for, at least the good ones.
No matter what the contents of the document, if it's really "inflammatory" and not just a way to fuck with someone, I bet there's a righteous organization somewhere that will do the heavy lifting for you.
You are welcome on my lawn.
inflammable in French means flammable (or inflammable) in English. Maybe some linguistic contamination? Ininflammable means non-flammable.
Great plan, with two extensions.
1. Use an Ubuntu Live CD and a throwaway flash drive.
2. Have an alibi. Electronic breadcrumbs work great. Send a friend who looks like you out with your VISA card and cellphone to buy $5 worth of gas while wearing your ballcap and jacket at the same time you are at a Wifi hotspot uploading to wikileaks.
3. If you have you friend pick you up, make sure the cell phone is off and you aren't in a car with OnStar service.
4. If you involve a friend, make sure you friend isn't an idiot with a big mouth. It is best to act alone
Remember, the police have infinite resources to catch you. Think carefully before you act and remain calm.
Hmm ... if the level of "trail covering" you are recommending is necessary, then he/she could have given the game away by posting his/her question to Slashdot.
Well, first off*, you should have submitted this as AC instead of IndianaKim.
Your anonymity may already be compromised. (this 'IndianaKim' looks good in black! Hubba! Hubba!-)
[safe for work-but no guarantees on 'safe for wife/girlfriend', though...YMMV]
Secondly, as others have said, Tor+public wifi+wikilinks==decent solution if you fear hosting it yourself.
Thirdly, internet hosting is not the only solution here. News outlets/journalists love this stuff if there is any veracity!(well, whatever, YMMV)
And fourth, if the FBI and DoJ would be as interested as you believe, then it is your 'Patriotic American Duty as a Citizen' to give it to them. Really.
*LOL, 'IndianaKim' could also be a male Korean[or not] dude in Indiana! If so, no disrespect was intended[see:'subject']...just pointing out the possible problems of 'leaving tracks online' to be followed to the 'real world you'. I just liked the okcupid.com/pic's I found in the google search for that username, so I used that as an example!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Put it on Wikileaks. Send it anonymously to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and a few key congressional offices. That's a good start.
When in doubt, ask what would Herblock say?
Wikileaks is a good place to start. Another impressive project is GNUNet. The folks working on it have really thought through the technical requirements for robust support of free speech. It is a thing of beauty.
http://gnunet.org/
http://gnunet.org/faq.php3?xlang=English
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
I do believe the FBI will take anonymous tips, but it may not make a difference unless the people know about it. Use a fake name, go through some anonymous proxy servers and do host it in another country host it everywhere, Wikileaks as other people have mentioned. If you are worried about illegal search make sure you don't have anything in your possession they can use against you. If they violate your first amendment right I would take it all the way to the supreme court.
"We multitask like you breath, I couldn't think as slow as you if I tried"
...just like someone's doing to you. :-)
This one gang kept wanting me to join cause I'm pretty good with a bo staff.
He's afraid of the local police, though, who will have a harder time going a hundred miles away and raiding the Internet cafe records on a whim. Something about jurisdiction. I mean, if he were a real criminal, they'd be able to work through it readily enough, but it ought to be enough to deter a casual fishing expedition.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
The answer to that impacts how you go about doing this (I'm going to skip the bits about how you should also be going to the FBI, DOJ, and your lawyer).
If the answer is "seriously", what about going to the nearest major city (i.e. not the one you live in, but a few hours' drive away), buying a used laptop off Craigslist, sticking in a Ubuntu LiveCD with some variant of Tor, and connecting to an open wifi point to email the doc to WikiLeaks and Cryptome? Use a brand-new gmail address, never use it again, and then throw the laptop out/leave it somewhere to get stolen.
Cue The Sun...
You made no mention of its size so I'm assuming only ~50-200 MB.
Buy the cheapest laptop/netbook you can find. Go to a free netcafe and torrent it*. Be sure to link here, digg, 4chan, everywhere to ensure quick propagation. Post to wikileaks like so many have said (from somewhere else). Don't host it personally, let the internet back it up.
Create a gmail account, email to every news agency you can think of.
Get a bunch of thumbdrives, load them up with it, give them to anyone who would care about this.
*Will take a long time, maybe try and find a library with free wifi and abandon the laptop on a secluded shelf (I suggest the legal/tax law section). Ensure no fingerprints or hairs are on it. Heck buy a refurnished laptop and let the previous owner's information throw them off you.
Get a bunch of flashdrives and turn every computer in a library into a seeder, I hear bitcomet can be run off a flashdrive. If you use those tiny microdrives you could hide them in the back of a machine and the rest of the world will take forever to find them (forever defined as long enough to get the internet to seed them).
Get a lawyer for if they do find you out.
If I were you, I would host it on a stolen iphone and make sure my hat was reinforced with an extra layer of tin-foil.
Last small drive I took apart, the platter (haven't seen a two platter 20G in awhile) was a metalized glass like substance that broke very easily. If that is the case powder it and flush the powder. If it really is metal take a propane torch to it and make it glow, I seem to remember that magnets hate getting hot to that level. Oh, also toss the (cooled) remains in the trash at a busy McDonald's, sans fingerprints. And yes, I do take drives apart every chance I get, got to love those fingernail breaking neodymium magnets...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Whether I'd host or not is first a question -- Is it my decision? Am I an employee, or an owner? This thing risks being an unprofitable venture. and owners should make decisions about such risks. Otherwise, an employee is effectively stealing. Some people think it's OK to steal from companies. I don't.
Presuming I _can_ make a decision, itthen becomes a question -- Is it worth it? Is the matter worth going to the mat for? Is it genuine and accurate, or is it libelous sour-grapes? Or a smear campaign? This is an individual judgement. Playing Don Quixote is in the best American democratic tradition, but you should choose your windmills.
How is an easier question other posters have addressed. I would add that I would do a "soft-launch", get the doc out there on USENET, 'blogs, wiki (leaks and other). Make sure it has good keywords for easy findeability (put in preface and META headers). Only once it has spread, then publicise it.
Insert a bunch of links to other locations so potentially hostile entities become discouraged they can "recapture" the doc. Many may be ignorant of internet operations and think they can kill one site to make it go away. Educate them. Likewise, even the publicity page can be spread and soft-lauched.
I think this is a little over the top, given that he submitted his plan on /. already.
Then the drive would get famous and you would sell it on ebay, right? Good plan!
"Depending on how important/inflammable this document is, I might look into buying a cheap 20GB laptop hard drive, installing ubuntu, going to a star bucks, doing the above and then "disposing" of the drive and all media so that there are no questions."
You don't need to buy a hard disk. Boot a Knoppix or Ubuntu live CD and read the document from a disposable flash drive. Drop drive into an empty soda can, smash can flat, discard in trash. Your lappy hard drive is never touched.
Spoof your MAC address or use a throwaway WLAN card:
http://www.village-elder.com/blog/archives/6-How-to-spoof-your-MAC-address-under-Linux.html
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
That's why s/he/it needs to visit Paramount or fans and find the Vidian frayed-skin emulsified-flattulance cookbook and dress up like one. THEN enter said internet cafe. Problems with this idea? Don't worry. S/he/it will be dressing up like a Vidian dressing up like a human dressing up like a Vidian descended from a time-line-displaced/nuked fugitive pretending to be a mergee from multiple Earth continents...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
POLISE.CX
and then post it to slashdot under false pretenses
???
PROFIT! i didn't mean to yell. sorry.
was that the sound of something going down in flames and burning up?
rewriting history since 2109
TOR IS NOT SECURE! But by all means keep using it. It does nothing for security of data i.e. encryption. It is only encrypted from you to the exit router. From the exit router to the destination it is clear text if it started that way, such as http. Https would remain encrypted. Further your DNS not encrypted and finally, layer 7 info could be used to track someone down. If you don't believe me, install the routing service, fire up wireshark, become an exit router, and start capturing data on http, smtp, etc etc.
Inflammable and flammable obviously have the same Latin root, but via different routes. Something that is "inflammable" is something that can be "inflamed", such as a rash, flammable liquids, tempers, and so on. Being flammable merely means that it burns.
After all, I am strangely colored.
"Flamamable" is easy, so I'll skip it. As for the other -- just think "inflamed" hemorrhoids. They don't call them that 'cause they *don't* burn!
I am not left-handed, either!
I might look into buying a cheap 20GB laptop hard drive, installing ubuntu
Use a USB stick and then incinerate it. It is very hard to recover data from an incinerated USB stick.
Just callin' it like I see it.
For this to work you would also have to change your wireless interface's Ethernet MAC (hardware) address.
(Yes, it's paranoid, but so is the original question.)
No, none of this security "voodoo" is required at all. It's nothing but paranoid delusional compulsion driven obsessiveness.
Really, who is going to be watch 'YOU?' You are nothing, a tiny insignificant electron fart on the massive, anonymous Internet freeway. There is no way that anyone could possibly track such a posting back to you even if you sent it from the comfort of your West Virginia trailer park, wood panelled double-wide. By the way, the cat is scratching at the door. Please let her in. The noise is driving me nuts.
...anyway. Like I was saying, the level of grandiosity required to believe that jack-booted, neo-conservative thugs with brush cuts and small testicles are following the every movement of this document and your friend Herb's handling of it is just beyond the bounds of all sane thought processes.
Damn it Frank, let that frikin' cat in already. Put down the JVC multi-function remote. Holy crap, man. You DVR'ed the mud wrestling match last night while your aunt Emma was over for dinner. It's not like you can't pause the damn show. Don't you know that Princess is very sensitive to heat and humidity? Maybe you won't have to take her to the vet 20 times this summer (like you had to last year) if you leave her in air conditioning for a change.
So, have we learned anything? No one is watching you. The government doesn't care what you do with that damn document that Herb wants you to host for him. No need to take ANY type of security/privacy countermeasure!
We ... I mean, the government is not watching anything you do. Really. This is the voice of reason speaking to you.
Depending on how important/inflammable this document is, I might look into buying a cheap 20GB laptop hard drive, installing ubuntu, going to a star bucks, doing the above and then "disposing" of the drive and all media so that there are no questions.
Might as well go the extra mile and get a whole laptop from Craigslist. Then you have no worries about tracing MAC addresses or anything like that. Pay cash and don't give them any contact info that could be traced back to you. If you get the vibe that the laptop is stolen, all the better. Then, yank the hard drive altogether and boot from a LiveCD. Never use it for any other purpose than to upload the document. Dispose of it in tiny pieces in different locations.
anything you do with it online, do through tor or an anonymous proxy. don't leave any tracks if you don't need to.
put it on wikileaks, as already advised.
get hardcopies out there, too. buy a new ream of paper from your local office supply store. handle the paper with gloves from packaging to printer to envelope. i shouldn't have to suggest to handle the envelope with gloves, too. mail it with a bogus (actually bogus, not a real address for someone else) return address, dropped in to a mailbox nowhere near where you live or work. sent them to the local media, the internal affairs department of your local police agency, any local politicians you trust, etc.
good luck!
For this to work you would also have to change your wireless interface's Ethernet MAC (hardware) address. By default this is a vendor-specific code that is probably unique enough that it could be used to link you to the upload.
Actually, this is not as true as it should be. I worked for a PC company which supplied name brand hardware to a major corporation. One problem we repeatedly ran into was having to swap NICs to different subnets because of MAC conflicts. The first 3 octets do represent the manufacturer, the last 3 should make a unique ID. In reality there are 16777216 possible combinations (255^3) not all of which get used for various reasons. Also 16 million unique IDs are not that many for a major name brand as we found out, selling several thousand units annually.
Do it yourself, don't bow to the leaks hegemony!
Or... you can do this:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda3
this assumes that the 20 GB hard drive is located at /dev/sda3
From what I've read, it's not yet been proven as to whether or not it's possible to recover data that has been zeroed using dd.
Yes it is, use shred /dev/sda it's much more secure.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
Well, "they" didn't identify the Unabomber - his brother did, because he recognized his writing style in his published manifesto, which in turn resulted in the forensic investigation and comparison of his manifesto to some earlier stuff that he'd written. The method is called stylometry (or stylometrics) and is used widely in forensic linguistics, but it's still only an indicator of authorship - not proof.
In the Unabomber case, they had two sets of texts, the manifesto written by the Unabomber and the texts written by Ted Kaczynski, hence it was relatively easy to compare the two sets and see if there was reason to believe the author of both sets to be the same. In this case, you'll have a single text by an unknown author... What will you compare it to first when you have no suspect or suspected texts? Exactly... This document will have to mean the end of the world before they start trawling the web for random texts and comparing. Mind you, these stylometric comparisons must be verified by a human, even though a lot can be automated with principal component analysis.
I'd say that the author can feel pretty safe, as long as he/she isn't a well-known author and/or uses linguistic constructions specific for his/her dialect or regiolect. Remove all meta-data from the file (e.g. go with plain text or HTML as suggested (far) above) and publish to wikileaks through Tor from a public hotspot. At least, that's what I'd do. I don't know about Brian Boitano, Buddha, Muhammed or Jesus.
Oh, and yes, I am a linguist. :)
"Live free or don't."
Maybe contact a nationally famous reporter who likes to cover things like this? Or 60 Minutes, Dateline, or even 20/20?
I liked the idea of Wikileaks the best, though, using an anonymous torrent file transfer to them. Then use a utility to wipe any drive that might have the file(s) on them. You can use one that does a DOD level deletion, or just use a wipe program. Some defragmenters will wipe the free space for you using your choice of wiping of the area for security purposes.
If you keep the files on a USB flash drive, you can either burn it, hide it somewhere safe away from home or work, or mail it to someone far away to hold it for you.
You can delete the torrent program (if you use one) and its folders before you do your file wiping or defragging with a wipe of the free space.
Maybe you can even mail a package with a DVD or CD to wherever it's going to end up, shipping it from another city or state even.
Posting here may flag you as a possible source for any release of information about this news, of course, so you may want to find a new home for your computer equipment so it's not taken and kept as possible evidence to mess with you.
If there is actual illegal activity going on, the feds will get wind of the information from Wikileaks or wherever it's posted or aired and take whatever action they care to do.
Best wishes on this, and I hope the results are posted here.
The Russians can do this, no problem. Probably some Ukrainians could easily do it too. Both charge more than the Chinese, but doing it there might bring some problems with the CPC. Disclaimer: I would never intend to do anything illegal, immoral, unethical, illogical, politically incorrect, or bad by anybody's definition of the word. If this is in any way seemed or inferred to be one of the above, I disavow any knowledge of my actions and plead insanity. Good luck and I hope that you fuck them up really good. Oh, I didn't mean that.
That's a lot of work; why not buy a cheap flash drive, copy the file to it, and then go to your starbucks or library or hotel or anywhere with a computer, and use *that* computer to upload to wikileaks? I fail to see why you need to use a specific laptop just to transfer a file.
i always found it odd that flammable and inflammable mean exactly the same thing...
I always thought flammable is something that catches on fire and is supposed to be used for that purpose -- whereas -- inflammable is something that can catch on fire but not intended to be used for that purpose.
So, gasoline is flammable, but my plastic curtains are inflammable.
the easy way: first off have your "pal" burn it to cd-rom - do not put it on your hd - then do a little wi-fi war driving. after finding a decent (commercial) hot spot, upload it to any of several hosting sites like rapidshare etc directly from the disc. then write the link on a bathroom wall. all done. if a takedown notice is ever filed against the host it won't matter, your opus will have already spread like the clap.
yes, you can tor and onion ad infinitum but in less time than it took to write this post you could have uploaded the bombshell, and gotten out of the house to boot.
for x-tra security use an old wi-fi card from an out of town church tag sale. park far away. wear shades, a bad wig and a porn star 'stache whilst perusing the tables. a large sock in the trousers wouldn't hurt either. think misdirection.
- js.
In court. With independently substantiated documentation and video.
Better make sure the content is accurate and not fiction for the purpose of abuse.
Better make sure you are willing to deal with the consequences and collateral damages that happen in our very human world. Will someone be harmed? Will a family be harmed. Will someone suicide? Do you want to be a part of the aftermath?
What are the -civil- courts ramifications? Did the subject suffer serious monetary damages, lost wages, lost income, lost property. Do you want to foot the bill?
After you are sure of all of all the answers, hire a lawyer and have him/her make sure.
And then don't do it.
Go ahead and post it on scribd or wikileaks. Just don't be surprised when no one takes notice or cares.
Required reading for internet skeptics
Print that shit out and nail it to the wall, Martin Luther style.
...which got him assassinated.
Also, MLK is grossly over-credited in the civil rights movement; he was largely a figurehead. Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters were the major force; they were the ones who bailed out Rosa Parks, they were the ones who bankrolled MLK (they needed someone who wasn't a Porter and thus on the road all the time. King had the time, and a large congregation.)
Fun fact: Lincoln's son, Robert Lincoln, was the biggest union-buster the country has ever seen. There was a common saying in the BoSCP union: "Lincoln freed the slaves and his son re-enslaved them".
Please help metamoderate.
Remember, the police have infinite resources to catch you.
No, they really don't, whether it's measured in money, interest, or skill. They won't get the NSA to help them crack your encryption, they won't get the FBI to help them, they won't bring in a team of forensic experts. Unless you've got some dirt on Nancy Pelosi, or seven schoolgirls buried in your backyard, they aren't going to bring in the big guns against you. It will be your local police force whose expertise probably consists of running a specific program that dumps IE cache and history. Maybe they can read email headers. Your other points would work, and would be very helpful in a "Day of the Condor" type scenario, but if that's the case, the slashdot submitter has already signed their death warrant.
If the FBI is interested in it presumably because they'd be investigating the local PD for fucking up, well then let them have a copy and do their job. You think that police on any level have a magic sense that lets them know when something is wrong? No, they have to see evidence. So if the FBI really might be interested in acting on this, then let them at it.
As far as getting the word out in general, well the established press is a great way to go. Just about every newspaper out there -loves- seeing the government get egg on their face. So give them a copy and let them publish it. You get the added benefit that there are some strong protections of the press so it is very difficult for the cops to stop the publication, and very difficult for them to make the paper reveal their source. As a practical matter, you can always send it to the paper anonymously.
But the parent is correct, if you really care about this, you've got to stand up to some extent. If you don't, ok I won't tell you that is wrong, but then don't bitch if whatever it is that these document reveal keeps on happening. If you don't stand up for your rights, you kinda lose the privilege of crying when they are stepped on.
I dare them to check my posting history!
-A.C.
Oh, and yes, I am a linguist. :)
then tell me, won't all the linguistic style be gone forever if you just take your text and run it through google translate to convert to zulu and then back to english?
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
Post the story to a few high traffic forum site, let the viewers copy and paste it into other forums and email forwards. Next drop a few anon emails to cnn, fox etc - pointing them to these articles. Once the media grabs a hold of the story, all the website could dry up over night, but News Reports will be on it like leeches.
Never try to beat a professional at his own game!
If you choose to stand up to things you don't like, you still have the choice of tactics in how to make your stand. Part of that it figuring out how to either 1) continue to remain alive and free, or 2) make it expensive for the opposition to kill or imprison you.
If I were given some hot data -- say, a copy of the "torture photos" that have made Obama lose his testicles (or perhaps to display that he never really had any) -- I would keep in mind that in order to get the information out there, I don't have to arrange for permanent hosting. I just get it out to a bunch of different places long enough for the Streisand Effect to work its magic.
My suggestion:
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Or, as Bender: The use of words expressing something other than their literal intention. Now that is irony.
Are you just doing this because you can?
Just because something is "highly inflammatory" does not mean that publishing it necessarily serves some greater good.
Of course, perhaps your exposure would promote some good by exposing corruption or something. You didn't really give any reason other than you have something "inflammatory".
It's disquieting that no one asked for any justification, but rather leapt to technical solutions. Then again, this is SlashDot...
Advice: on VPS providers
Frag all the nonsense. I'm dying to know what it is. LinkS!
There's no such word as "flammable"; it was made up out of ignorance of the word "inflammable", mostly for safety reasons so that stupid people wouldn't get confused and light everybody on fire.
Inflammable and flammable obviously have the same Latin root, but via different routes. Something that is "inflammable" is something that can be "inflamed", such as a rash, flammable liquids, tempers, and so on. Being flammable merely means that it burn
I think the term "inflammable" is a corruption of "enflammable" myself. A morphological transform similar to the confusion certain writers have between "their", "there" and "they're". Sometimes errors in grammar are just to* sticky.
*yes, that was meant.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Email it to various media contacts and let them take care of it. If it's as inflammatory as you claim, they should pick it up and run with it.
Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
If it's not your baby then I'd leave it well alone.
I might look into buying a cheap 20GB laptop hard drive, installing ubuntu, going to a star bucks, doing the above and then "disposing" of the drive and all media so that there are no questions.
1. Buying a laptop would involve some sort of payment that can be traced back to you.
2. To the best of my knowledge, the MAC address of your network card is the only thing that ties you to the access point. So you can just change your MAC id and use your own laptop.
3. Why dispose of the drive ? That is just another suspicious activity if you are noticed doing it. There are many drive erasing tools available.
Finally, why do you recommend Xerobank ? How is it better than firefox with the tor plugin ?
Assuming the document is small, you could install Xerobank (formerly TorPark) and create an account on Wikileaks and upload it to Wikileaks through the Tor onion router. Your anonymity would be assured in a hilariously sound manner.
Your website need do nothing more than link to Wikileaks and ponder how it got there.
That would be my plan of action. I would also be careful with all the machines/devices used to transfer that file.
Depending on how important/inflammable this document is, I might look into buying a cheap 20GB laptop hard drive, installing ubuntu, going to a star bucks, doing the above and then "disposing" of the drive and all media so that there are no questions. Sorry to sound like Harvey Keitel on Pulp Fiction but ... when you're dealing with serious stuff ...
My question is: would you host it if you were asked? How would you go about protecting the document and yourself?
Anonym.OS is a the way to go: http://sourceforge.net/projects/anonym-os/ Discard of the CD-ROM afterwards, or not: no trace left. Ideal for a hit&run-action. But one question: why would you upload the document and such? Just give them an account with some webspace and email-account on your server/domain, "so they can play around with php and mysql wink-wink notch-notch", and play innocent when the cease-and-desist letters come in.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
How much of the news you can find on Wikileaks do you ever make it to the mainstream news?
Most of it, if it is brought to the publics attention via TMZ or some "retarded" show, will be shown as something a crazy person / consipracy theorist would do.
I guess i'm distracting from the point - submit it to wikilinks and while we, as readers and followers of the news will see it, but the masses will not. That youtube video of the guatemala thing will be a household talking point for civil rights in other countries - its not just a news article - its real. On a far out side note, It wouldn't surprise me if the US tries to butt in down there for some reason.
I've got off in tangets - I do that - but i'm sure you see my points - and then some. Cheers always.
I think one of the questions you should probably ask yourself is whether you are simply being used by these guys? This is perhaps not a comfortable thought, but why should you take the risk for somebody? There may be good reasons why, but unfortunately, in this world you have to watch out for people not always being quite what they appear.
The other side of it is of course that if what you have is genuine, you want it to be taken seriously. If you disseminate your information through a medium that is widely considered a source of gossip or other muck, you won't be taken serious. IMO if the cause is worth it, you should be able to get an investigative journalist interested.
Post it on Freenet forums and hope it gets into the right hands.
A.) Paranoid, or
B.) Legitimately concerned 'they' are actually out to get him.
C.) Not tech-savvy enough to publish it anonymously himself/herself.
While you and I would have no problem publishing something anonymously, I know about --- hmm --- a lot of people that wouldn't know where to even start. Of course, I can't say that this is the case here, but it's a possibility, but yeah, you're right --- a little extra security never hurts.
"Live free or don't."
Some will, but not all. I'm not sure exactly how Google Translator handles certain dialectal traits, and lexical choices may still remain. It will without a doubt make it harder to determine whether the suspect has written the text.
Interesting idea actually. I'm gonna look into that when time allows it. Thanks!
"Live free or don't."
send it all around the net since privacy does not really apply to an institution that's supposed to have an open policy and if you're afraid of hosting it send it to me, i'l put it up and you can just link to it
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
You could but that requires a little more care - e.g. most such OSes will happily use any swap partitions they find on the drive.
I am trolling
Just put it on a CD/USB key and leave in a public place near a large news outlet. Repeat after a month or so if nothing came of it.
And why is the article tagged xs4all? It's not that that it isn't part of a large telecom called KPN.
So just when does it become one's duty to put personal risk aside and perform such a public service? I think that's a line that can't be drawn without considering the benefits of the act and the consequences for the individual in question. If no such consideration is made, then you're saying a person should risk even death for what may be completely trivial issues. It is not a black and white matter.
You're assuming he would be using exit servers at all. Wikileaks is available inside of Tor as http://gaddbiwdftapglkq.onion/, so you never leave the network, never use DNS, and your traffic is encrypted in onion layers both ways, i.e., end-to-end. If you can show that Tor is insecure even in this scenario, the scientific community would like very much to hear from you.
"Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
It's much better to not have to "play innocent" when the FBI bust your door in one early morning. I like your first advice better.
"Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
No, it's not. Slashdot even did a story on this a while back: data on modern hard disks can't be recovered after being overwritten just once, even with electron microscopes.
vi ~/.emacs # I'm probably going to Hell for this.
I'll post it, host it, and spread it. Give it to me. If it is truly as damning as you say, then it's best to spread it as far and as wide as possible. hitech_hillbilly01@yahoo.com
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It is always fun to search the neighborhood for an unsecured WiFi connection to use as a host and sit in the front yard with a bag of popcorn to watch as your neighbors get raided.
Go ahead and host it but make it is public as possible. Include a blog and get as many people aware of it as possible. The public eye is what will ultimately protect you from illegal search and seizure. Make it so that people expect you to make daily updates and when you do not, you have the protection of the public. Government officials that are engaged in corruption and malfeasance do not want public attention. Make the press aware of this document, offer to speak with them in an interview. This could spell trouble for an government official wishing to "make you disappear."
I think we've found someone who will hand deliver it for you!
The people that wrote the article in the story you mention had no idea what they are talking about.
Peter Gutmann, one of the experts in this area, specifically responded to that article (see further epilogue).
email me at iridiumdreams@gmail.com
Tom Delay followed the orderly through the halls of the hospice. He was more than a little nervous at the idea of meeting Terri: hospitals made him a bit egdy. Nevertheless, he believed this to be a big item for his constituents, and he marched proudly to see this wonderful dying woman.
Eventually they reached the room and he asked the orderly to leave him alone with her for some 'personal prayer time.' The orderly obliged and left him there. Tom noticed that the lights were somewhat dim. Why not, he thought. It's not like this vegetable will need them. Tired after a long day with some of the fundamentalists outside the hospice he threw himself into a chair and began to think the situation over. He knew he'd already won big points with the religious crowd, but he hoped to find a way to score even bigger. Leaving the hospice and claiming that Terri had spoken to him through prayer was one idea that came to mind, but he immediately dismissed it as a little too outlandish. He needed something simple.
Heh, she's certainly livelier than my wife is, he thought to himself bitterly. He cast his eyes over at the faintly stirring Terri, who was staring at the ceiling with those lovely dark eyes and drooling quietly to herself. I have to admit, she was a beautiful woman once. But now she's just old. Terri here, though... the lack of intelligence notwithstanding, she has a simple charm to her. A simple charm that a down home Texan like myself might appreciate.
Tom quietly chastised himself for such thoughts. Granted, he may have become bitter after years of loveless marriage, and the semi-private hospital room did afford him some freedom to exercise thoughts that might otherwise accidentally slip out in public... but. But what? Tom took a moment to wrestle with his conscience. Lord, I know this to be wrong, but....
'It's a crying shame that such a lovely young lady might suffer such a painful death without a few final... comforts,' he said to himself, slightly surprised that he'd managed to work up the courage to entertain the notion. Still, was it not his duty as a good Christian to ease the suffering of this woman? He was, after all, only trying to elicit some sort of response. She would not respond as much as some women would, but then, Tom liked them that way. 'I suppose, my dear, that your last worldly affair might save me some rohypnol.'
Tom stood and checked to be sure that the door was closed and latched before he unbuckled his belt as quietly as possible... not an easy task with the giant buckle he had that complied with all Texas rules and regulations for belt buckle sizes. Without letting his pants slip he moved to sit beside her on the bed. Terri still didn't respond. Tom tentatively reached out a hand to fondle her breasts through the flimsy hospital gown, immediately feeling his member stiffen as he did so. He gently found her nipples through the gown and pinched them, though he got no response from her. Good...
He slowly removed what he could of the gown, though he was too busy keeping his pants on to do a proper job of turning her over to remove the whole thing. Instead he managed to get most of the front of her uncovered and let his hands wander and explore her, pausing a moment as he came across the hole where her feeding tube was missing. Idle thoughts flitted through his mind as he fingered it, but they fled and he continued his searching, until he found her surprisingly neatly trimmed bush.
As he gently tickled her glorious labia he found it impossible to resist rubbing himself through his clothes. All the while he was watching her face intently, hoping for some sign of life. But not too much life, he cautioned himself. Persistently vegetative women tell no tales.... Fortunately she was still contentedly drooling... from both sets of lips! He brought his fingers to his nose and took a good whiff of the acrid goodness thereupon.
Suddenly he heard a few sets of footsteps outside! With all the quickness he could muster he r
They actually had three texts...Unabomber, Ted Kaczynksi, and Al Gore's Earth In The Balance.
Al Gore or the Unabomber?
If you don't want the trouble, you shouldn't host it. That being the case, just tell your source about Wikileaks and let him handle the posting. Problem solved, at least where you're concerned.
Peter Gutmann also says,
"As a result, they advocate applying the voodoo [a 35-write pass] to PRML and EPRML drives even though it will have no more effect than a simple scrubbing with random data."
---linuxrocks123
vi ~/.emacs # I'm probably going to Hell for this.
Huh? You mean short texts? That can be done too --- sort of. (http://thetext.co.uk/)
If you meant something else I don't get it, so you'll have to be more specific. Sorry. (No disrespect from my end either.)
"Live free or don't."
Wow! Great link! I scored 67%.
Someone please mod parent up!
However, while this is interesting, it's not really relevant for a stylometric analysis. Usually* you'd find the 50 most common words in the entire text, then split the text up into chunks of 5000 words and find the frequencies of each of the 50 most used words in these chunks. Then you'll have 50-dimensional descriptions of each chunk, which you'll then process using principal component analysis. The linked test is more in the field of folk linguistics, which is quite different from forensic linguistics, but very, very interesting none the less.
*: Note, usually... The numbers may vary depending on who you ask.
"Live free or don't."
See my reply to anzwebfoot for my personal view of this scenario, but to answer your questions directly:
Question 1, Would I host?
You bet. Pay the fee, read the TOS, and remember you are solely responsible for the content you publish.
Question 2, What steps would I take to protect your content?
At present we don't have a formal SLA or uptime guaurantees, but backups are your responsibility in any case. We take appropriate and reasonable steps to ensure the security and integrity of your site, but ultimately you are responsible.
Question 3, What steps would I take to protect myself?
Against what? Exactly what would I have to be concerned about here? Oh, by the way, those rumors about the RPG, the .50 cal., and the thermate are completely unfounded.
jbdigriz
CD-Rs cost $10? You must be thinking of blu-ray.
secrets have been discovered on surplus hard drives sold on places like eBay by people who didn't get your memo and did check the drives.
High quality drive scrubbing software like Eraser (Windoze) and shredder (any Open Source distro as part of GPG, presumably Windoze and OSX versions available) is readily available for free download, use it before selling or giving away any HD with confidential content on it.
Tech Public Policy stuff
You just spilled you guts on ways to subvert 'The Man' in a public forum.... now you are all going to be watched....
and soulskill..... I don't believe you.... not one bit.... I think you are baiting all the paranoids....
Good day! .... I said, GOOD DAY!
If the information is damning enough that it would interest the feds, send it to them. Why waste the time of Data-Wikileaks-PublicDisclosure-FedsGetInvolved when you can cut out the intermediate steps? If the information itself can be used to identify the source, why does it matter if it is posted off-shore?
Ideally, I think you'd want to do both: Wikileaks as a fail-safe guarantee that it won't disappear, and contact the feds (or, more accurately, have your friends contact the feds). If they want it anonymous for witness-protection types of reasons, I imagine the Feds are much better at that than we are, short of the "STFU" principle. If there is whistle-blowing that needs to go on, it CAN be done anonymously and still be given to the feds. Heck, post it to Wikileaks and then notify the feds, if necessary. Clearly, someone things enough shady is going on that there'll be an investigation anyways.
he or she isn't posting from somebody else's account? Or an account created for the specific purpose of posting this question by somebody living in FL using a throwaway e-mail account?
Tech Public Policy stuff
"How would you go about protecting the document and yourself?""
Ensure that the document is truthful, e.g. it is what happened and not some story/opinion/view.
'A lie if repeated often enough, becomes the truth.' - Goebbels
What kind of repercussions are we discussing? We don't know. What does he have to lose? We don't know. So why are you claiming lack of character? Is it a lack of character to fear for the safety of your children? Any repercussions we bring onto ourselves we bring onto those we love, and must always be mindful of that. Your brand of heroism can be a truly selfish act. There is always a way to make sure that information goes where it needs to be, we do not always need credit for it.
You're thinking of BTK. He sent some document or other to the police on a floppy disk (after asking THEM if there would be any way to trace it back to him). The document was written in MS-Word! They just had to pop up File->Document Properties and there was his name: Bob T. Killer (or whatever).
If it's a Word doc, you might consider going through it with a hex editor or doing an ascii dump on it, as your skills allow. New documents sometimes pick up information about the registered owner of the software, the computer, the date/time, etc. PDF files have such metadata as well.
Digital photos often contain EXIF information showing the model of camera, as well as the time and date the photo was taken. The whereabouts of the the owner of a camera of the same model listed might be quickly correlated to the time/date shown in the photos.
All this information is easily removed, but you should be careful to scrub the data itself, along with any devices used to transport it, while keeping your links to the source minimal.
Cheers!
Inflame
1340, "to set on fire with passion," fig. use of L. inflammare "to set on fire, kindle," from in- "in" + flammare "to flame," from flamma "flame" (see flame). Literal sense of "to cause to burn" first recorded in Eng. 1382. Inflammable "able to be set alight" is from 1605. Inflammatory "tending to rouse passions or anger" is from 1711. Inflammation "redness or swelling in a body part" is from 1533.
After all, I am strangely colored.