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Wikileaks Needs Help, and Not Just Money

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the step-up-amazon-and-volunteer-the-cloud dept.

st1d writes to tell us that Wikileaks has put out a call for help. However, instead of just asking for money, they have also suggested technical and legal avenues for support. In the site's short life, Wikileaks has been at the center of many breaking scandals and investigations. "Wikileaks is currently overloaded by readers. This is a regular difficulty that can only be resolved by deploying additional resources. If you support our mission, you can help us by integrating new hardware into our project infrastructure or developing software for the project. Become patron of a WikiLeaks server or other parts of our technology, adding more pillars to the stability and balance of the WikiLeaks platform. Servers come trouble-free and legally fortified, software is uniquely challenging. If you can provide rackspace, power and an uplink, or a dedicated server or storage space, for at least 12 months, or software development work for WikiLeaks, please write to wl-supporters@sunshinepress.org."

16 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Freenet by Sanity · · Score: 4, Interesting
    It seems that Wikileaks should operate over Freenet. Leaks could be submitted anonymously that way, and also distributed anonymously. The advantage would be that it would be entirely decentralized, so there would be no organization vulnerable to legal action.

    Freenet has been slow and hard to use in the past, but its improved quite a bit. It is the obvious platform for something like Wikileaks. Of course, there is nothing to prevent people from mirroring content on the web (since installing Freenet, like any piece of software, is a hassle). But at least there will be an unimpeachable backup of all data on Freenet.

    1. Re:Freenet by causality · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It seems that Wikileaks should operate over Freenet. Leaks could be submitted anonymously that way, and also distributed anonymously. The advantage would be that it would be entirely decentralized, so there would be no organization vulnerable to legal action.

      Freenet has been slow and hard to use in the past, but its improved quite a bit. It is the obvious platform for something like Wikileaks. Of course, there is nothing to prevent people from mirroring content on the web (since installing Freenet, like any piece of software, is a hassle). But at least there will be an unimpeachable backup of all data on Freenet.

      I wish a comprehensive group of security experts with varying backgrounds and specialties would get together and try to compromise both Freenet and Tor to see just how secure and anonymous they really are. By this I mean in an open, public, collaborative sort of way. This could only be a good thing, as any vulnerabilities or weaknesses could potentially be addressed. Then we could be a bit more confident about the confidentiality of those who contribute documents to sites like Wikileaks. I am sure that many such folks are doing so at great risk to themselves, especially when they live under repressive regimes, yet they believe in our right to know and are willing to take that risk. It really would be nice to know they are a bit safer doing it.

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
    2. Re:Freenet by David+Gerard · · Score: 4, Informative

      The problem with Freenet is that no-one uses it. Wikileaks kicks real-world arse because it's on the World Wide Web, where everyone else is.

      --
      http://rocknerd.co.uk
    3. Re:Freenet by Splab · · Score: 3, Interesting

      TOR is already proven to be pretty unreliable since the exit node can sniff all the traffic, have enough exit nodes and you can track your target.

    4. Re:Freenet by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Why not that of which we do not speak?
      It's distributed world wide, mirrored about everywhere, everyone has access to it, it's fast as hell (maxes out my connection), you can post massive binaries to it, text files. Most places have up to 400 day retention now. It would be trivial to setup a script to repost stuff every 100 days. Put everything in a 7za and it shouldn't take up too much space.

      If the RIAA/MPAA hasn't figured out how to touch it, I doubt many will.

    5. Re:Freenet by ThePhilips · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ... Freenet ...

      From the site:

      For best performance, Freenet will run continually. It should not interfere with your computer usage, as it requires around 200MB of RAM and 10% of one CPU core, plus some disk access.

      And no wonder considering that it is written in Java...

      Not all PCs have Java installed. First. Second. With that kind of resource utilization, I do not see Freenet catching with average consumers.

      Probably they should invest into a lightweight C/C++ client. That even I would let run on my systems.

      --
      All hope abandon ye who enter here.
    6. Re:Freenet by jhol13 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, it really should be rewritten in Python (or what is the cool language today).

      Seriously, I much rather pay the memory penalty of Java than fight against the numerous security bugs C/C++ program would give.

  2. Bad times by damburger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wikileaks are asking for help at a time when people are financially struggling. If the aspects of the internet that enhance personal freedom depend on people committing their time and resources, this is a dangerous time.

    --
    If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
    1. Re:Bad times by ZorinLynx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not necessarily; even though people are struggling there are always people who are doing very well. Just a few of those pitching in can help considerably.

      It never hurts to ask, the worst that can happen is "no".

    2. Re:Bad times by lorenlal · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They're also one of the few places where I feel we can see the facts behind some of the reasons so many people are struggling right now.

      Seriously - We get fed all sorts of BS from the news agencies... WikiLeaks posts the stuff that can often verify or debunk much of that BS.

    3. Re:Bad times by Dragonslicer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not necessarily; even though people are struggling there are always people who are doing very well. Just a few of those pitching in can help considerably.

      I have the feeling that most of the people that are doing "very well" these days are not particularly interested in supporting a project that reveals secrets.

  3. The Cloud ... by zummit · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wouldn't "The Cloud" solve all of WikiLeaks problems?

  4. Re:Torrents by ThePhilips · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm surprised nobody yet thought up a BitTorrent analogue for HTTP - to offload/share traffic from busy sites.

    I guess latencies are the problem, but faced with information being not available at all, higher latencies are probably a good compromise.

    Sites like Wikipedia or WikiLeaks could definitely benefit from such technology.

    --
    All hope abandon ye who enter here.
  5. Re:I donated money by selven · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Making a potentially offensive joke and then complaining about the moderators not getting the humor in it is also being an ass. So is continuing to post when the mass of "offtopic" moderators would prefer you to leave quietly.

    BTW, I quite honestly had no idea that your "probably Native American" post was supposed to be funny.

  6. I'm at the point in my life... by pongo000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...that I can't afford to be the legal test case for running a Tor exit node or a Wikileaks server, much as I believe in both of these projects. And I would imagine there are many who, while they possess the desire and the technical know-how to engage in such activities, simply cannot be expected to do so without some form of legal immunity (or at least a guarantee of unlimited legal representation). Until that time comes, I simply don't see many people stepping forward with offers of hosting assistance.

    Perhaps an effort should be made to secure guaranteed legal representation from the EFF, FSF, and other groups for those who volunteer to run exit nodes, servers, etc.

  7. Re:Irresponsible by chdig · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A career that was ruined because something became publicly available is a career that should be ruined

    What if the "something" that became publicly available had absolutely no direct bearing on the career of the person (ie sex scandal)? Could this not be a reason for why the U.S has so many seemingly perfect, dull, boring politicians that are good at playing the game, but bring no dynamicism to the political arena?

    I'm the type that understands that sometimes backroom deals are best left in the backroom, and that people should stop interfering and meddling in personal affairs. Context is everything, and your black vs white argument might be right in some situations, but very wrong in others.

    I agree that wikileaks needs to exist, and it gives freedom to those of us with less power and connections. Still, the power it has can be wielded wrongly, turning people like you into those that you're railing against. Your argument makes it sound like you would like power more than you would fairness.