Data Visualization – UK Finances

How Secret are these Secrets on WikiLeaks ?

The WikiLeaks release of 250,000 documents is, of course, big news –  it’s the largest number of published leaked secret documents ever.

There is much excitement about the content, understandably so. The US Administration is less excisted and is apparently concerned about the leaks with the following statements being made:

• “Such disclosures puts at risk our diplomats, intelligence professionals, and people around the world who come to the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government”
• “President Obama supports responsible, accountable, and open government at home and around the world, but this reckless and dangerous action runs counter to that goal.”
• “place at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals
• “place at risk on-going military operations,”
• “place at risk on-going cooperation between countries.”

So, the US administration and  US Intelligence seem to be pretty concerned about the “risk”.

Clearly, such damaging material would be kept under incredibly tight security? They would probably take the following actions to minimize risk:

• Partition the information – so only certain people could access certain information
  • For example, there is no need for all the Brazil analysts to access information on Italy.
• Remove any network connections
  • For obvious reasons
• Limit physical access
  • High security rooms, CCTV, armed guards, those fancy double key entry rooms you see in movies, etc, etc
• ZERO ability to copy data.
  • Systems to prevent photography, printing, etc (obviously USB devices would be blocked

Errr, will no.

Those statements are probably true for critical intelligence, but these cables are NOT even Top Secret. They were just “Secret”, which is pretty low in the world of intelligence, in fact Top Secret is when intelligence circles really start to operate and there several levels above Top Secret.

The data that was stolen was copied from a centralized system, which around 3 million US military and US government workers had access to; from very junior levels upwards.

Much of the data was, according to the Guardian who are involved in leaking the material with WikiLeaks, copied to a CD! I.e – it was nothing more than a drag and drop exercise.

Hardly, high-tech and hardly highly protected data.

There is a staggering lack of security around these secret files. Probably because they contain opinions rather than hard intelligence, source names or signal frequencies.

Given the numerous cases of spying and espionage (see a small sample below, more available here)  its  likely  these cables would already have been seen by other intelligence agencies.

Examples of Spying

• China has previously been accused of (attempting to) stealing information about the F35 and hacking US DoD systems.
• NASA has been previously hacked (presumably by China)
• Robert Hanssen spied for the Russian’s for 22 years, while working for the FBI, during the cold war.
• Iyman Faris aka Mohammad Rauf worked for the FBI and Al Qaeda
• Cambridge Five: Five British agents worked for the Soviets during the cold war.

It highly unlikely that all cases of spying are discovered and made public.

Given the alleged “risks” this data poses, with “countless lives at risk”  there was little security around the actual data. In fact it sounds like its harder to get onto a plane with a 500 ml bottle of water than get hold of the “secret” cables.

The 250,000 leaked cables maybe the biggest leak ever published, but it’s probably not the biggest leak ever.

Judge Jacqueline Davies – The Twitter Joke Judge

The twitter joke trial has now become main stream news thanks, almost entirely, to the blogging community.

The case itself it’s pretty shocking and has been dealt with by numerous other articles.

The aim of this article is not to discuss the specifics of case, but the latest Judge to become involved in this case – Judge Jacqueline Davies.

Judge Jacqueline Davies, pictured below, is a circuit judge. She was married to Paul Clark, also a judge, who died on October 6, 2008 (aged 68). 

Judge Jacqueline Davies

During the appeal against the conviction of Paul Chambers Judge Jacqueline Davies stated that  the “[The Tweet was] menacing in its content and obviously so. It could not be more clear. Any ordinary person reading this would see it in that way and be alarmed. The airport staff did see it and were sufficiently concerned to report it……We find it impossible to accept that anyone living in this country, in the current climate of terrorist threats, would not be aware of the consequences of their actions in making such a statement.”

Paul Chambers tweet, for those who have not seen it was

“Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!”

A key part of her judgements is worth repeating, due to its sheer lunacy:

“[The tweet was] menacing in its content and obviously so. It could not be more clear. Any ordinary person reading this would see it in that way and be alarmed”

Given that thousands of people around the world repeated the words on Twitter, showed that many people do no find it phrase menacing.  Clearly the “ordinary” person reading those words was not in anyway alarmed.

The question is how “ordinary” is Jaqueline Davies to convict a man, on appeal, of little more than an understandable  tantrum?

A quick check of the internet will easily find people saying far more harmful things with no element of humour at all.

Below are a sample of comments taken from YouTube, found within a few moments:

• god dam pope can burn on a stick shoved up his ass
• I HOPE YOU FUCKING DIE!!!!!!!!”
• You fringe neo-Nazi freaks
• Hey shut the fuck up ur annoying kid , AND EAT MY NUTS NOOB

These quotes are all from the videos on subjects of science and politics, on  one of the worlds largest sites. The people making these comments tend to be repeatedly aggressive and threatening, with no hint of humour. Sadly this is the nature of the internet.

It’s highly unlikely that Jacqueline Davies is aware of the nature of the internet, forums, YouTube, Facebook, instant messaging or Twitter.

Paul Chambers next step is to head to the High Court.

WikiLeaks Under “Attack” by DDoS

Wikileaks is currently under a massive Distributed Denail of Service  according the BBC.

In other, and entirely unreleated news WikiLeaks is just about to release diplomatic cables that are both secret and embarassing for the US Government.

Information Commissioner – June 2009

The current Information Commissioner is Christopher Graham, who replaced the outgoing Richard Thomas

Chris Graham ICO

Christopher Graham became Information Commissioner in June 2009. The Information Commissioner is appointed by HM The Queen and has independent status, reporting directly to Parliament, with a range of responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Data Protection Act 1998 and related laws. The functions of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) include promoting good practice, ruling on complaints and taking regulatory action.

Christopher’s career began at the BBC as a radio and TV journalist. Most recently he has been:

• Director General of the Advertising Standards Authority;
• Chairman of the European Advertising Standards Alliance; and
• Secretary of the BBC.

He was a Non-Executive Lay Representative of the Bar Standards Board and a Non-Executive Director of Electoral Reform Services Ltd. He studied History at Liverpool University and his interests include media, music, singing, history and writing.