Leak From WikiLeaks Endangers US Sources

Entire unredacted cable file hits Internet
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 29, 2011 1:08 PM CDT
Leak From WikiLeaks Endangers US Sources
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange holds a legal document as he addresses a press conference in central London, on July 14, 2011.   (Getty Images)

A file containing all of WikiLeaks’ 251,000 US State Department cables has—wait for it—leaked online, this time without the names of US sources redacted, meaning many of them could be in danger. The file leaked out thanks to some misunderstandings, some carelessness, and the feud between Julian Assange and former spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg, Der Spiegel reports. The leak was first reported in the German newsweekly Der Freitag, according to TechCrunch.

When Domscheit-Berg left WikiLeaks in September 2010, he took the server containing the encrypted file of the original cables with him. When he returned a number of the files later that year, some WikiLeaks supporters dumped the data online—unaware that the file was tucked among the others. Even then it was still encrypted and hidden—until this spring, when an Assange contact revealed the password publicly, unaware it would allow access to the cables. Now, Domscheit-Berg’s rival group, OpenLeaks, is drawing attention to the lapse, to bolster its argument that WikiLeaks data isn’t secure. (More WikiLeaks stories.)

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