26 November 2010. A sends:

However, in the [Amy] Goodman interview, when asked to explain the [insurance.aes256] file, Assange stated:

“Well, I think it’s better that we don’t comment on that.” He then followed that with a thought-provoking comment: “But, you know, one could imagine in a similar situation that it might be worth ensuring that important parts of history do not disappear.”

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/295597#ixzz16PdfFV00

26 November 2010

Wikileaks History Insurance

The Wikileaks tweet yesterday on downloading "history insurance" with a link to the Pirate Bay Torrent does not necessarily mean only the "insurance.aes256" uploaded on July 28, 2010.

The novel phrase, "history insurance," not heretofore advertized by Wikileaks, may refer to another Wikileaks protective measure or it may be a pointer, code word or passphrase, even one of the likely multi-level passphrases for the "insurance.aes256" file.

Those adept at openSSL -- apparently used to encrypt the insurance.aes256 file -- might want to try the phrase and its variations as password.

A search of torrents turned up a handful of hits on "history insurance," but none appear to be related to recent actions of Wikileaks. However, shrewdly, Wikileaks could have pre-postioned a slew of protective measures before the bombshell campaign started, perhaps as early as the initiation of Wikileaks in late 2006 if not well before then by Assange and collaborators to create a secret "historical" air-gap between the measures and the public venture. These would be unveiled as necessary commensurate with threats unveiled, but never fully revealed despite rubber-hose interrogation -- "rubber hose" an Assange nick for an encryption program.

Assange and the security wizards advising Wikileaks are unusually gifted at long-range deception and protection, some sell those arcane and lucrative services to spies, governments, banks, businesses, billionaires and other criminal cartels -- and give freely to those targetted by highly-profitable and nutty secrecy peddlers. A few provide operational security for the Internet and digital communications and know their weaknesses and strengths, hideaways and byways for genuine and phony actionable intelligence, financial lawful and outlaw rings and where their dirty money is hidden. Yes, among them are ex-NSA officials and their exceptionally adept contract researchers as unbound by NDAs and secrecy agreements as Bradley Manning and others deeper inside not yet unveiled. What they know is what James Bamford in "The Puzzle Palace" (paper, p. 461) explores of the NSA dilemma of what to do with data gathered on corrupt officials in the US and elsewhere other than bury it as unminizable foreign intelligence despite pleas from law enforcement agencies.

An NSA article,"Toward a Taxonomy of Secrets," outlines the grand scope of the ever-expanding cult of self-serving secrecy with guardedly useful apologia for the practice:

http://cryptome.org/0003/secrets-taxonomy.htm

The article is unclassified thus advertizes not telling the whole truth, please pay for that to "keep us strong." Insurance codephrases for the practice of deception in the spirit of asymmetrical open source, you give freely we profit.