WikiLeaks Lessons: Stronger Encryption and Secured Systems

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Gurudatt Shenoy

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It is not yet clear, and maybe never will be, as to what went wrong with respect to information security resulting in WikiLeaks episode that has taken everyone by storm.

Was it a system failure or was it a security solution that failed the test!?!

From what I have read and know, it seems like a system failure, as there was no secured system worth its salt in place to prevent mass proliferation of important information, if not highly classified data.

Seems like someone was able to download the entire database and copy it to a portable drive and get it shipped outside the system, or upload it via the numerous online websites out there.

Or it could be a deliberate leak by informed authorities?

The most unlikely possibility is that someone hacked into the system and stole information using an online back-door.

Yet, what fascinates me is the sheer volume of the information (including the Afghan and Iraq tapes) as well as the quality of information.

How could this information be classified and yet not be encrypted, using a "for your eyes only" kind of secured solution so that only the sender and recipient could reveal and read the information. Even the Romans had a better solution and system to prevent such leaks. 

Add to the fact that 3 million people already have this information. 

What alarms me is not what has been leaked by WikiLeaks, but what could be out there that is even more dangerous, a potential for disaster waiting to happen, or something important that could fall in the hands of sinister people.

The Chinese are never tired of trying to get their hands on everything that can be hacked and accessed.

And if the technologically most powerful country is so vulnerable, what about the rest of the world, such as those who also possess nuclear weapons?

Wars have always been won due to the superior information gathering capacity of the adversary. Today the adversary is terrorism and neo-nationalist fervor.

When will the world adopt more secured information systems, or in other words when will most of us be able to transmit information securely?

Make it For Your Eyes only...... 

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Lee Mangold Data-in-transit is encrypted on SIPR. The problem is that someone was given too much access... While I agree that an alarm *could* have been tripped at the massive download, it probably wouldn't have even been necessary if the CD writer was disabled (as it should have been).
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