Rundle: more bollocks broadcast about WikiLeaks – Crikey (registration)

Racing round the world this morning is a fresh shock horrorWikiLeaks story, which purports to show that even if the organisation isnt just a bunch of balalaika strumming Cossacks in the pay of Putin, it may as well be.

WikiLeaks Turned Down Leaks of Russian Government During US Presidential Campaign the headline reads to a piece on the Foreign Policy site. Has the smoking AK-47 been found?

Well, no, as it turns out. The story is based on a leaked/hacked WikiLeaks chatlog concerning a 70-gigabyte trove of documents from inside the Russian Interior Ministry, which the story alleges the organisation refused to publish during the 2016 US election campaign. Foreign Policy only has the WikiLeaks side of the chatlog but thats enough to debunk the storys angle, for it includes the statement at the time by WikiLeaks that: As far as we recall these are already public. According to the story, the trove was published elsewhere, and gained little attention. Presumably because it was 70 gigabytes of turnip requisition forms. WikiLeaks has long stated that it doesnt republish material readily available elsewhere (save for its curated reference libraries such as the Plus D database).

So no story at all, but enough to make an evidence-free charge that WikiLeaks was suppressing information because it could have been seen as anti-Trump. In that respect its worth remembering what Foreign Policy is: the global in-house journal of a geopolitical power elite, founded by Samuel clash of civilisations Huntington in the early 70s, and now publishing a range of movers and shakers including, in 2011, Hillary Clinton herself, outlining the dream of Americas Pacific Century, the policy underlying the now-abandoned TPP. You wont find isolationists, anti-imperialists or other such voices in Foreign Policy. What you do get apparently, is pro-Hillary beat-ups of such low quality that they contradict themselves from the get-go.

Twenty-twentys looking good. Looking good for 2020. And another five seasons of Veep.

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Rundle: more bollocks broadcast about WikiLeaks - Crikey (registration)

WikiLeaks Releases Over 1,000 Clinton Iraq War Emails

WikiLeaks tweeted a link to their email archive from their official Twitter page today. Wikileaks appears to have a substantial amount of information on Clinton, having already released a large archive of Clintonsemailsearlier in the year. Breitbart has previously reported on Julian Assanges claims that Google is complicit in the managing of Clintons online media campaign.

Released only a week after Bill Clintons meeting with Attorney General, Loretta Lynch and a day after Huma Abedins admission that Hillary Clinton had burned daily schedules, the contents of Hillarys released emails, containing multiple interactions between Clinton and multiple white house officials, could be extremely damaging to Clintons current presidential campaign.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has previously stated that he has multiple leaks in storefor Clinton and, as a free speech fundamentalist, believes that a Clinton presidency could be damaging.

Of course, when she is in powershe is a problem for freedom of speech. We know what she is going to do. She made the chart for the destruction of Libyashe was involved in the process of taking the Libyan armory and sending it to Syria said Assange in a video posted to YouTube.

With considerable criticism of Hillarys work as Secretary of State and her recent comments expressing her regret at voting for the Iraq war, these leaked emails could be a source of insight into the presumptive Democratic nominees approach to foreign policy.

Lucas Nolan is a Journalism and Media student at Dublin Business School and a regular contributor to Breitbart Tech. He can be contacted via Twitter here: @LucasNolan_

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WikiLeaks Releases Over 1,000 Clinton Iraq War Emails

Julian Assange explains how WikiLeaks used an algorithm to catch the Clinton camp off-guard with email dumps – South China Morning Post

By Eliza Relman

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange developed an algorithm last year used to randomly select for release emails hacked from Democratic politicians and staffers, according to a lengthy New Yorker report.

The publishing algorithm, which Assange named Stochastic Terminator, helped WikiLeaks publish sets of internal documents and communications, including those of Hillary Clintons campaign chairman John Podesta, with the goal of making it more difficult for the campaign to to adjust to the problem, to spin, to create antidote news beforehand, Assange told the New Yorkers Raffi Khatchadourian.

Assange explained that the algorithm, which he developed leading up to WikiLeaks first release of Podestas emails last September, was built on a random-number generator, modified by mathematical weights that reflected the pattern of the news cycle in a typical week, Khatchadourian wrote.

Imagine it this way, Assange said. The WikiLeaks tank is coming down the road. You cant tell when it got on the road, when it is going to get off, how fast it is going, how big it is because it has a decoy exterior. They know that there are decoy parameters because I say it, and so you never know whats a decoy and what is not. It kind of paralyses their thinking.

Assange said that he was deliberately non-transparent about what information Wikileaks had before it was released, with the goal of keeping the Clinton camp on its toes. He compared his tactics to those of British intelligence agents during World War II.

The advantage is greater to be a bit crafty no, its not just being crafty. It comes, really, from what MI5 did in World War Two, Assange said, recalling Operation Mincemeat, in which the British famously planted fake intelligence documents on a corpse dressed in a British navy uniform, allowing the Germans to discover the body and the disinformation.

They stuffed secret information in his pockets, and had him wash up on the coast of Spain, and then they made it clear to the Germans that this was what they were doing, Assange said. So the Germans went from becoming fooled in one instance to doubting every instance.

Khatchadourian also reported that a source close to WikiLeaks told him that Guccifer 2.0, a hacker linked to Russian intelligence who claims to have given the Democratic documents to WikiLeaks, pressed Assange to release the first batch of hacked emails before the Democratic National Convention in July. Guccifer 2.0 complained to an American journalist that Assange was playing for time and reportedly offered the documents to journalist and researcher Emma Best.

A WikiLeaks staffer told Khatchadourian that the organisation was overwhelmed by the volume of information they received, and Assange said the group missed its original deadline of July 18 the Monday before the DNC by four days due to hiccups.

We had these hiccups that delayed us, and we were given a little more time Assange said, halting mid-sentence and then adding, to grow.

It was unclear who had given him time, but whoever it was clearly had leverage over his decisions, Khatchadourian wrote. Assange later claimed that his source did not mandate a publication time.

See Also: Trump addresses raid of Paul Manaforts home Trumps lawyer reportedly defended Paul Manafort in fiery email to reporter Expert saysyes, Trump could unilaterally decide to launch a nuclear weapon

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Julian Assange explains how WikiLeaks used an algorithm to catch the Clinton camp off-guard with email dumps - South China Morning Post

Wikileaks outs CIA ‘CouchPotato’ tool for hacking IoT cameras – The INQUIRER

WHISTLEBLOWING DOCUMENT FOUNDATION WikiLeaks continues to add to its growing trove of alleged CIA documents, known as Vault 7, with a user guide for a programme called CouchPotato, which is designed to capture video from IoT cameras.

Critics of WikiLeaks have said that the documents posted to Vault 7 are several years out of date, but this document is relatively recent. dating back to February 2014.

The CouchPotato project is apparently intended to target RTSP/H.264 video streams coming from networked cameras; unlike Dumbo, it doesn't seem to require physical access to a PC.

The documents posted to WikiLeaks deal with the first version of the application, but it isn't clear whether or not other versions exist. If they did, we imagine that they would smooth out issues like the excess CPU time consumed by CouchPotato (which would increase its risk of being detected).

The guide states: "CPU usage of the process that CouchPotato is injected into can potentially be high depending on the number CPUs/Cores available. In development and testing, it was observed that on a Windows 7 64-bit VM allocated just one CPU core, the process that CouchPotato was injected into was using between 50-70% of available CPU while capturing images of significant change. Memory usage was between 45-50MB."

The document is also full of recommendations to use wisely', indicating that there are still bugs or other inefficiencies present.

In its own words: "CouchPotato is a remote tool for collection against RTSP/H.264 video streams. It provides the ability to collect either the stream as a video file (AVI) or capture still images (JPG) of frames from the stream that are of significant change from a previously captured frame.

"CouchPotato utilizes ffmpeg for video and image encoding and decoding as well as RTSP connectivity. In order to minimize size of the DLL binary, many of the audio and video codecs along with other unnecessary features have been removed from the version of ffmpeg that CouchPotato is built with. pHash, an image hashing algorithm, has been incorporated into ffmpeg's image2 demuxer to provide image change detection capabilities.

"CouchPotato relies on being launched in an ICE v3 Fire and Collect compatible loader."

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Wikileaks outs CIA 'CouchPotato' tool for hacking IoT cameras - The INQUIRER

WikiLeaks ‘CouchPotato’ Dump: CIA’s video hacking programme seemingly revealed – TrustedReviews

WikiLeaks is at it again, this time unveiling what it claims are more details of a surveillance programme operated by the CIA.

Specifically, this latest data dump in the Vault 7 series contains information on the CIAs CouchPotato hacking tool.

This alleged CIA project concerns hacking video streams, its claimed, and is said to target devices running the Windows OS.

Related: Best VPN

According to WikiLeaks, CouchPotato is a system for intercepting video chat and security camera streams, and can remotely hack those streams, unlike the previous programme WikiLeaks claimed to uncover: Dumbo.

Dumbo was said to relate to the CIAs ability to hack and mute microphones and disrupt webcam recordings, and required the physical addresses of the devices it targeted.

But CouchPotato can, according to WikiLeaks, target IP-based surveillance cameras, and since the operator has the specific URLs for the video streams, those being targeted could theoretically be entirely unaware of any CIA intrusion.

WikiLeaks user guide for the latest revelations state:CouchPotato is a remote tool for collection against RTSP/H.264 video streams.

It provides the ability to collect either the stream as a video file (AVI) or capture still images (JPG) of frames from the stream that is of significant change from a previously captured frame.

Using CouchPotato, WikiLeaks says the CIA cansave specific video streams in AVI format or as JPEG images.

Whats more, the system is also supposedly capable of identifying movement in a video and only saving those specific parts cutting out any time periods where there was no activity.

How long has this been going on, according to WikiLeaks? Well, the system apparently dates back to 2014, with only the first version being detailed in the latest data dump.

Just where the programme is now remains unclear, so it could be the programme was developed or possibly even scrapped as the information seems to indicate CouchPotato put a huge strain on computers system resources.

Let us know your thoughts on CouchPotato on social media.

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WikiLeaks 'CouchPotato' Dump: CIA's video hacking programme seemingly revealed - TrustedReviews

WikiLeaks: CIA’s CouchPotato tool grabs footage from remote video streams – BetaNews

The latest addition to WikiLeaks' Vault 7 cache of CIA documents and tools is a user guide for CouchPotato. This project is designed to capture RTSP/H.264 video streams, typically from networked cameras.

This is rather different to the approach taken with the Dumbo project which required physical access to a computer. The CouchPotato documentation is relatively recent, only dating back to February 14, 2014.

See also:

The leaked documents relate to the first version of CouchPotato, and its not clear if further versions have been produced that iron out problems. CouchPotato 1.0, for instance, uses a massive amount of CPU time, meaning there is a risk that the activity would be noticed by a target.

The documentation explains:

CouchPotato is a remote tool for collection against RTSP/H.264 video streams. It provides the ability to collect either the stream as a video file (AVI) or capture still images (JPG) of frames from the stream that are of significant change from a previously captured frame. CouchPotato utilizes ffmpeg for video and image encoding and decoding as well as RTSP connectivity. In order to minimize size of the DLL binary, many of the audio and video codecs along with other unnecessary features have been removed from the version of ffmpeg that CouchPotato is built with. pHash, an image hashing algorithm, has been incorporated into ffmpegs image2 demuxer to provide image change detection capabilities. CouchPotato relies on being launched in an ICE v3 Fire and Collect compatible loader.

WikiLeaks says:

Today, August 10th 2017, WikiLeaks publishes the the User Guide for theCoachPotatoproject of the CIA.CouchPotatois a remote tool for collection against RTSP/H.264 video streams. It provides the ability to collect either the stream as a video file (AVI) or capture still images (JPG) of frames from the stream that are of significant change from a previously captured frame. It utilizes ffmpeg for video and image encoding and decoding as well as RTSP connectivity.CouchPotatorelies on being launched in an ICE v3 Fire and Collect compatible loader.

More information about CouchPotato is available on the WikiLeaks website.

Image credit: ZaZa Studio / Shutterstock

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WikiLeaks: CIA's CouchPotato tool grabs footage from remote video streams - BetaNews

Wikileaks releases a user guide for CIA’s CouchPotato project – Neowin

Government surveillance is one of the more trying issues we've had to face since the advent of the digital age. The lack of transparency from government agencies has led to the rise of such organizations as Wikileaks. While it has been accused of partisanship, anti-American narrative, and much more thanks to the eccentricity of its founder, it continues to leak confidential secrets of the CIA. The latest one is a user guide on a tool called CouchPotato.

A remote tool that allows for the collection of RTSP/H.264 video streams, CouchPotato can be used to "collect either the stream as a video file (AVI) or capture still images (JPG) of frames from the stream that are of significant change from a previously captured frame". FFmpeg and RSTP connectivity is used for encoding and decoding the streams.

They use a stripped down version of the FFmpeg software by removing unnecessary features along with various audio and video codecs. Instead, pHash, an image hashing algorithm, is incorporated to add the image change detection capabilities. This helps in reducing the binary footprint of the DLL. It relies on being launched in an ICE v3 Fire and Collect compatible loader.

The user guide consists of three sections that include an overview, prerequisites, and usage. The document strongly recommends to not launch out of a process that is critical to system stability such as services.exe as it may lead to a memory leak and open file handles. You can read the complete guide here.

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Wikileaks releases a user guide for CIA's CouchPotato project - Neowin

Wikileaks reveals CIA’s ‘Dumbo’ USB stick that mutes microphones … – The Sun


The Sun
Wikileaks reveals CIA's 'Dumbo' USB stick that mutes microphones ...
The Sun
US spies have designed software which switches off microphones and webcams in a room during a physical raid destroying evidence that they ever entered a ...
News in brief: Wikileaks' Dumbo flies; off-script chatbots; Google down-votes duff appsNaked Security
Wikileaks reveals CIA tools used to hijack webcams and microphonesThe INQUIRER
Dark Matter - WikiLeaks - Vault 7: ProjectsWikiLeaks - Vault 7: Projects

all 11 news articles »

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Wikileaks reveals CIA's 'Dumbo' USB stick that mutes microphones ... - The Sun

WikiLeaks founder offers job to Google employee fired over diversity memo – Washington Examiner

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange said on Tuesday that WikiLeaks is offering a job opportunity to the former Google employee who was fired after writing an internal memo condemning the technology company's approach to diversity.

"Censorship is for losers. @WikiLeaks is offering a job to fired Google engineer James Damore," Assange said on Twitter. WikiLeaks, founded by Assange, releases classified government documents and publishes leaks from anonymous sources.

James Damore was fired on Monday for "perpetuating gender stereotypes," according to Bloomberg, after he said in his memo that biological differences are one of the reasons for the gender gap in the technology sector and in leadership positions. The 10-page memo, titled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber," details Damore's views that the company alienates conservatives and has discriminatory policies.

"'Shut up and think' while the taboo of the day may change the fate of workers under cognitive capitalism remains the same #JamesDamore," Assange added.

There has been a range of reactions to Damore's firing, from those who applauded his removal because of his statements and those taking a similar stance to Assange, who view the firing as a censorship of opinions. Assange tweeted a hypothetical conversation between Google and one of its engineers.

"Google: Any ideas on how we can decrease wages? Engineer: The job is lonely & stressful. Maybe women don't like it Google: You're fired," Assange said.

The U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against Google earlier this year and requested compensation data to see if it is following equal employment laws.

"Women & men deserve respect. That includes not firing them for politely expressing ideas but rather arguing back," Assange said.

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WikiLeaks founder offers job to Google employee fired over diversity memo - Washington Examiner

Wikileaks’ Julian Assange Just Offered Google’s Fired Anti-Diversity Employee a Job – Fortune

WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has offered a job to James Damore, a Google employee who was fired after he wrote a scathing internal memo criticizing the company's diversity policies .

"Censorship is for losers, WikiLeaks is offering a job to fired Google engineer James Damore," Assange wrote on Twitter Tuesday. In the same post, Assange also linked to a WikiLeaks article he wrote called "Google Is Not What It Seems."

Damore, a now-former engineer at Google, accused the Silicon Valley web giant of suppressing conservative voices in a 10-page memo called Googles Ideological Echo Chamber ," which was circulated over the weekend.

[W]hen it comes to diversity and inclusion, Googles left bias has created a politically correct monoculture that maintains its hold by shaming dissenters into silence," the memo, which was initially published anonymously, said. He later confirmed in an email to Bloomberg that he had been dismissed for "perpetuating gender stereotypes."

Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees on Monday that parts of Damore's memo "violate our Code of Conduct and cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace."

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Wikileaks' Julian Assange Just Offered Google's Fired Anti-Diversity Employee a Job - Fortune