Trapwire Surveillance Leak
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Background
Operation Antisec: Stratfor E-mail Hack
On February 27th, 2012, Wikileaks began publishing more than 5 million e-mails[12] that were allegedly obtained by Operation Antisec-affiliated hackers from the private security firm Strategic Forecasting Inc. (Stratfor) on December 24th, 2011. Following the release of documents, Anonymous-affiliated Twitter feeds @AnonOps, @AnonyOps and @YourAnonNews posted links to the Wikileaks page along with warnings about upcoming leaks. According to the Wired article[12] citing an anonymous source, the hackers decided to turn the information over to Wikileaks because the site was deemed more capable of analyzing and publishing the data.
WikiLeaks Releases TrapWire Documents
On August 9th, 2012, international news publication Wikileaks released a new batch of documents about a governmental surveillance program known as TrapWire, a predictive software designed by the U.S. security firms Stratfor and Abraxas Corp to detect early signs of impending terrorist plots. Due to the covert nature of its operations prior to the release of the documents, the news was quickly met by baseless speculations and sensational headlines in the blogosphere as well as mainstream news outlets.
Notable Developments
News Media Coverage
WikiLeaks' release of new materials obtained from Stratfor was picked up by various technology news sites and internet culture blogs that same day, beginning with English-language Russian news sites The Voice of Russia and Russia Today. The initial report was subsequently posted to the political discussion site Democratic Underground later that evening. In the following days, the "Big Brother" scare in the news media continued to spread with its coverage on Boing Boing and IO9 on August 11th, Geekosystem and Salon on August 12th and followed by The New York Times, Daily Beast, PC Magazine, Gawker and Wired on August 13th and 14th.
Cover Image of Gawker's Post "Everything You Need to Know About TrapWire"
WikiLeaks Under DDoS Attack
Meanwhile, WikiLeaks' server outage became noticeably more frequent shortly after the release of the e-mails, rendering the site virtually inaccessible for more than a week for many readers. Soon, it became evident that WikiLeaks had been targeted with a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, when an unknown group calling itself AntiLeaks openly claimed responsibility for the website's downtime since as early as August 3rd.[24]
Tango down wikileaks.org
— Anti Leaks (@AntiLeaks) August 4, 2012#Wikileaks#Cowards
In addition, the mysterious group of hackers also managed to bring down several mirror sites set up by Anonymous supporters of WikiLeaks. As a result of sustained DDoS attacks on the site, WikiLeaks remained largely inaccessible for more than ten days until August 15th, when the content delivery network CloudFlare provided assistance to bring it back online.
Search Interest
External References
[1] Public Intelligence – Unravelling TrapWire: The CIA-Connected Global Suspicious Activity Surveillance System
[2] Boing Boing – TrapWire: Wikileaks reveals ex-CIA agents running a face-recognition profiling company that surveils NYC subways, London stock exchange, Vegas casinos and more
[3] NonViolentConflict – New WikiLeaks #Trapwire release mirrors and TOR LINK
[4] Russia Today – Stratfor emails reveal secret, widespread TrapWire surveillance system
[5] ZDNet – Wikileaks uncovers TrapWire surveillance: FAQ
[6] IndieBay – Anonymous Operation TrapWire
[7] Geekosystem – The Government Maybe Uses Cameras to Track Your Every Move
[8] io9 – Wikileaks reveals “TrapWire,” a government spy network that uses ordinary surveillance cameras
[9] Democratic Underground – Stratfor emails reveal secret, widespread TrapWire surveillance system
[10] Daily Beast – TrapWire: The Less-Than-Advertised System To Spy On Americans
[11] Wired – Trapwire: It’s Not the Surveillance, It’s the Sleaze
[12] New York Times – WikiLeaks Stirs Global Fears on Antiterrorist Software
[13] Gawker – Everything You Need to Know About TrapWire, the Surveillance System Everyone Is Freaking Out About
[15] PC Magazine – Wikileaks Dump Tips U.S. 'TrapWire' Surveillance Efforts
[16] NBC News – Is TrapWire surveillance really spying on Americans?
[17] Reddit – Wikileaks under massive DDoS after revealing "TrapWire," a government spy network that uses ordinary surveillance cameras
[18] FARK – Wikileaks under massive DDoS after revealing "TrapWire," a government spy network that uses ordinary surveillance cameras
[19] Decrypted Tech – New Group AntiLeaks Opens Up DDoS War on WikiLeaks, But Might Not Be What They Claim
[20] Reddit – Search results for Trapwire
[21] Salon – TrapWire: Spying On YOU. Predicting YOUR Moves
[22] WikiLeaks – Trapwire: multi-country surveillance network operated by company with deep ties to the CIA
[23] United States Patent and Trademark Office – TrapWire Pre-Attack Terrorist Detection System For Protecting Critical Infrastructure
[24] Twitter – @AntiLeaks
Top Comments
Joniroquai
Aug 15, 2012 at 03:07PM EDT
AllTheGoodNamesAreTaken
Aug 15, 2012 at 09:43PM EDT