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Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

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Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#41

Post by elif »

ceejayoz wrote: post #33
elif wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The truth isn't responsible for serving anyone's interests, and especially not the interests of the biggest secret keeper. The truth is not political, except that it is the natural enemy of politics which rely upon secrecy. If your perspective is that more secrets are being kept by more egregious actors than the US, the truth welcomes your contribution...

One does start to worry about a truth-teller who only ever presents one side of the story, though.

There are 6.5 billion people who can tell the truth on the other side as well. It's not productive to attack the one group doing something, when everyone else is doing nothing.

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#42

Post by jdmichal »

elif wrote: post #31
azinman2 wrote: post #21

I've really turned on Wikileaks. Itd be one thing if all the major powers had equivalent leaks publishing, but focusing on the US basically serves Chinese and Russian interests far more than it does the citizens of the US. String obfuscation isn't stemming from some corrupt deal that needs sunlight... this is just doing a disservice to their original mission.

The truth isn't responsible for serving anyone's interests, and especially not the interests of the biggest secret keeper. The truth is not political, except that it is the natural enemy of politics which rely upon secrecy. If your perspective is that more secrets are being kept by more egregious actors than the US, the truth welcomes your contribution...

> The truth isn't responsible for serving anyone's interests...

I think it's interesting you respond this way. Because I thought it was pretty public knowledge that Wikileaks does not release all the information they get. And they especially don't release the information at the very same moment they get it.

You'd think if your quote was aligned with their values, that such wouldn't be the case.

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#43

Post by eli »

elif wrote: post #31
azinman2 wrote: post #21

I've really turned on Wikileaks. Itd be one thing if all the major powers had equivalent leaks publishing, but focusing on the US basically serves Chinese and Russian interests far more than it does the citizens of the US. String obfuscation isn't stemming from some corrupt deal that needs sunlight... this is just doing a disservice to their original mission.

The truth isn't responsible for serving anyone's interests, and especially not the interests of the biggest secret keeper. The truth is not political, except that it is the natural enemy of politics which rely upon secrecy. If your perspective is that more secrets are being kept by more egregious actors than the US, the truth welcomes your contribution...

Wikileaks creates misleading summaries and narratives of the documents they release and then uses various techniques to encourage the media to follow that narrative. For example, they dump an unreadably large cache at the same time as a sexed-up summary and then tell news orgs that if they cover the story quickly and favorably, they'll be rewarded with early access to future leaks.

The "CIA uses your smart TV to spy on you" story is more myth than reality and it was completely created by Wikileaks. (When your threat model is "CIA agents enter your home to plant bugs" then getting rid of your Smart TV isn't much protection.)

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#44

Post by _zeo8 »

ceejayoz wrote: post #36
cavanasm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikileaks doesn't collect intel whatsoever. They pretty much put up anything sent to them that they think is real (and that admittedly fits whatever editorial narrative is driving Assange at the moment). No one at Wikileaks is doing the hacks, or infiltrating government organizations.

> They pretty much put up anything sent to them that they think is real. Maybe, maybe not. How would we know they do that?

If someone sends real leaks to Wikileaks and they don't publish, then the leakers can use alternative channels to distribute the leaks (for example, sending directly to journalists), and then accuse Wikileaks of not publishing. Has anyone already accused Wikileaks of not publishing real leaks?

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#45

Post by stevenwoo »

ceejayoz wrote: post #36
cavanasm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikileaks doesn't collect intel whatsoever. They pretty much put up anything sent to them that they think is real (and that admittedly fits whatever editorial narrative is driving Assange at the moment). No one at Wikileaks is doing the hacks, or infiltrating government organizations.

> They pretty much put up anything sent to them that they think is real. Maybe, maybe not. How would we know they do that?

Assange had an AMA on reddit, and he said they received Trump intel pre election and judged it was not worthy of releasing compared to the Clinton data dump.

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#46

Post by ajross »

elif wrote: post #31
azinman2 wrote: post #21

I've really turned on Wikileaks. Itd be one thing if all the major powers had equivalent leaks publishing, but focusing on the US basically serves Chinese and Russian interests far more than it does the citizens of the US. String obfuscation isn't stemming from some corrupt deal that needs sunlight... this is just doing a disservice to their original mission.

The truth isn't responsible for serving anyone's interests, and especially not the interests of the biggest secret keeper. The truth is not political, except that it is the natural enemy of politics which rely upon secrecy. If your perspective is that more secrets are being kept by more egregious actors than the US, the truth welcomes your contribution...

> If your perspective is that more secrets are being kept by more egregious actors than the US, the truth welcomes your contribution...

If your perspective is that the US is truly the most secretive and "egregious" actor on the modern stage, then you are shockingly naive. Or, more likely, misled by the skewed "truth" you are reading.

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#47

Post by azinman2 »

elif wrote: post #39
azinman2 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why shouldn't there be secrets?

There should be secrets. there should not be secret attacks on every computer on the planet.

I dont think there are, but who can say.

But you realize the US isn't the only one hacking systems, right?

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#48

Post by 01000001 »

azinman2 wrote: post #32
elif wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The truth isn't responsible for serving anyone's interests, and especially not the interests of the biggest secret keeper. The truth is not political, except that it is the natural enemy of politics which rely upon secrecy. If your perspective is that more secrets are being kept by more egregious actors than the US, the truth welcomes your contribution...

Why shouldn't there be secrets?

Why shouldn't they be told?

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#49

Post by mmcwilliams »

cavanasm wrote: post #34
tehlike wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

honest question: does wikileaks not have necessary connections in China to collect the intel and stuff?

Wikileaks doesn't collect intel whatsoever. They pretty much put up anything sent to them that they think is real (and that admittedly fits whatever editorial narrative is driving Assange at the moment). No one at Wikileaks is doing the hacks, or infiltrating government organizations.

I see the claim that "no one at Wikileaks performs any kind of attacks" said quite often, but it seems to go against the account of Assange made by his ghostwriter, Andrew O'Hagan, who claims that much of what Assange does or did was hacking and then rejecting credit[0]. It's often lead me to the belief that Wikileaks was formed as a way for him to launder the goods of his infiltrations.

Take that along with Assange's history of arrest in the 90's[1], I find it hard to take at face value that he just stopped hacking systems.

The relevant section of the essay:

> One of the things Julian found it hardest to admit to was the amount of hacking he did himself. He had worked out that being an ‘editor’ was somehow a necessary front for much that he did. He objected to the idea that WikiLeaks ‘stole’ secrets: according to him they simply understood, at a deeply sophisticated level, how the flow of information in society could be altered.

[0] https://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n05/andrew-ohagan/ghosting [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange#Hacking

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