How Did Wikileaks Do It?

grassy_knoll writes "Related to the Wikileaks video recently released and discussed here, the NY Times reports: 'Somehow — it will not say how — WikiLeaks found the necessary computer time to decrypt a graphic video, released Monday, of a United States Army assault in Baghdad in 2007 that left 12 people dead, including two employees of the news agency Reuters. The video has been viewed more than two million times on YouTube, and has been replayed hundreds of times in television news reports.' The article is light on details; what encryption algorithm was used? Was this a brute force attack? Did someone pass the decryption keys to Wikileaks along with the video? Something else?"

Comments

supercomputer

[spectrokid]

maybe this has something to do with it?

Re:It was leaked.

[fm6]

You're assuming the keys were in a form that could be easily shared. I very much doubt that military encryption works that way. Having your keys in a file on your PC my be adequate for you and me, but when Blofeld is out to steal your plans for invading Normandy, you need to make it a little harder for him to steal access.

And of course, it wasn't brute force. That approach was obsolete even back in Turing's day.

Re:They also left out a good deal of context

[ZekoMal]

This is plus five INFORMATIVE? mypetjawa is a site dedicated to catching Muslim terrorists that it calls "Jawa" (aka, a racial slur). Their decision that the video was a hoax was because someone had an AK-47, therefore the soldiers were totally justified. Are there really 5 conservatives that couldn't RTFA linked by this AC? Jesus Christ people.

Re:Wikileaks = Enemy

[AF_Cheddar_Head]

I would question who classified the video and why.

Explicit guidance exists that you are not to classify something just because it is embarrassing. What national secret is protected by classifying this video? Security Guidance says that the use of the SECRET classification is to prevent harm to the security of the US.

I believe an investigation needs to be opened into the misuse of classification for this video.

Re:maybe

[TheTurtlesMoves]

This was not unfortunate. It was a fucking war crime without kids. The pilot even said that they are unarmed, but picking up a body/wounded more than 5mins after the first firefight (if thats what you call it). That is against every country's rules of engagement there is. The pilot is swearing about getting permission to fire on the van, that is not shooting, has no weapons, and not picking up weapons.

It was not a fucking accident.