Wikileaks/Berico & Palantir

 Last week Anonops uncovered plans to further undermine the reputation and ability to function of Wikileaks. A team of three 'private security' companies had apparently been hired by lawyers (Hunton & Williams) on behalf of Bank of America (remember Assange saying before Christmas that the next leaks would affect an American bank?). It's all a bit of a mess now since Anonops discovered the plan and someone hacked into emails (Anonops say it wasn't them) between the three (known collectively as Team Themis), subsequently publishing them on line.

As well as naming individuals working for Wikileaks, tactics suggested by Team Themis (available in full at the link above) included the following:

* Feed the fuel between the feuding groups. Disinformation. Create messages around actions of sabotage or discredit the opposing organizations. Submit fake documents and then call out the error.
* Create concern over the security of the infrastructure. Create exposure stories. If the process is believed not to be secure they are done.
* Cyber attacks against the infrastructure to get data on document submitters. This would kill the project. Since the servers are now in Sweden and France putting a team together to get access is more straightforward.
* Media campaign to push the radial and reckless nature of WikiLeaks activities. Sustain pressure. Does nothing for the fanatics, but creates concern and doubt among moderates.
* Search for leaks. Use social media to profile and identify risky behavior of employees.

TechHerald has all the details including the news that two of the companies have now disassociated themselves from the third amidst all the unsavoury publicity.  They also have details of another instance where Team Themis, on behalf of the US Chamber of Commerce, targeted unions & political opponents including their families and children.

You don't need me to tell you what a dirty, filthy business this is and how we'd be kidding ourselves to think it doesn't happen here too so I'll just say 'good' for Wikileaks and Anonops and long may they continue the fightback against sordid politicians and institutions.

Calling England