Secrecy meltdown

WikiLeaks released its entire archive of 250,000 US diplomatic cables on Friday, following an accidental publishing of some of the unedited documents earlier in the week.

What never should have been allowed to happen has happened. Completely unedited cables are now free on the Internet; secret agents working for oppressive regimes and dictatorships the world round are rubbing their hands.

Human rights organizations, informants and the confidential sources of American diplomats have been left to worry about their own security. The Internet platform which, in the words of its founder Julian Assange, was meant to be the "First Intelligence Agency of The People," is on the verge of ruin.

Assange has gambled away WikiLeaks' essential capital, and confidence in the classified nature of the platform has been lost. Of course, WikiLeaks attempted to save its own members, and one must note that the platform had, until this mishap, exercised care in its publishing of the cables in connection with known media sources.

Leigh vs. Assange vs. Domscheit-Berg

But then jealousy games between the egomaniac Assange and David Leigh, the self-righteous author from the British daily The Guardian, as well as the internal discord between the WikiLeaks founder and its earlier representative, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, led to the data collapse that has irreparably discredited the platform.

The quarrels between the men have also raised the question: How reliable are whistle-blowing platforms?

Granted, from a technical perspective, the anonymity of such websites can be guaranteed. But, as this case has made apparent, nobody can be certain that the people in charge will deal with the confidential data in a responsible manner.

Data overload

For those who have rashly, and incorrectly, proclaimed an end to the whistle-blower era after the WikiLeaks meltdown, one must keep in mind that it is becoming more and more difficult in the age of the Internet to keep data secret.

How "secret" can information really be, if, in the case of WikiLeaks, some 800,000 people in US government circles have access to it?

Any insider can use a USB stick to leak information obtained from behind security clearance, and such sensitive networks are becoming more and more vulnerable to hacker attacks.

Cyber attacks are not only the "daily bread" of intelligence agencies and economic spies; in the meantime, the publishing of stolen information is becoming a quasi sport for groups such as Anonymous or Lulzsec.

For the anti-secrecy platforms like WikiLeaks there is always the classic alternative: publishing the information through a known media outlet that is already briefed on the topic at hand.

The limitless transparency that "cyberhero" Assange wanted to call to life with his WikiLeaks was, in the end, excessive. Nation states must be able to keep information classified as they see fit.

But, with regard to the security of that information, this is where the institutions themselves come into play. Regardless whether it's government intelligence, corporate secrets or credit card data, every institution should be responsible for its own security.

Author: Matthias von Hein / glb
Editor: Martin Kuebler