A warning to all who download the Wikileaks insurance file..

Just a short little reminder about the insurance file..

We don't know what's in it. There are people all over the world downloading it, and archiving the contents to their computers. We don't know the origins of Wikileaks, nor do we know why they are putting such a controversial file up for download. I am all about truth, believe me.

I just think it's a bad idea to download a file onto your computer, that could contain secretive spyware, alternative motives, or any extreme sinister results. We don't know whats in it, I suggest keeping it clean. I download lots of things, but this just seems like a bad idea to me.

Seems like an all too perfect way to get some software onto the majority of the computers in America.

But, if you do download, make sure you run some sort of IP protection software. GO and use PeerBlock before torrenting anything, and make sure the up-loader is reliable.

Maybe I am just paranoid, but I don't want to trust an organization that poses their 'top secret headquarters' for photo shoots. Or their founder.

reply to post by WillNiendick

Seems like an all too perfect way to get some software onto the majority of the computers in America.

Majority? I take it you're not from America? The majority don't know anything that wikileaks has released except for that mentioned on the MSN.

It would be a good way to get software on all the conspiracy people, though.

reply to post by WillNiendick


As opposed to even the stuff the ad banners install on your computer, even from this site?

I do not see much difference.

Nothing happened with the last insurance file.
Also, we know why wikileaks is here, to bring us the truth that the governments will not give us on their own free will.
If it was the government at work, why do they have their panties in a bunch about what wikileaks releases.

I think its one of the last avenues of truth on the internet now a days. Cant trust anything really, but really. why would they want to get random people downloading a random file? =P

If they ever released the key, just open up in sandboxie


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

take the nessery precuations you would with any download, esp one thats suspisous.

I've been a system admin and architect for over a decade and there is nothing in the latest release that I can find.

Previous releases from Anon, Lulz, etc HAVE been packed full of viruses and trojans but these were probably added by other people and uploaded to the various torrent sites. Know your source. Just like people will upload tons of fake copies of popular videos on youtube, people will distribute fake copies of the leaks releases.

Every computer owner should be using a quality anti virus as well as an additional malware / trojan detection product. Some of the largest brand name products also produce false alarms like mad so please do your research.

While it's great to be paranoid about security, you should already be confident that your system will detect and deal with any threats contained in something like this. If you have to be worried then you probably have some work to do on securing your system.

Originally posted by WillNiendick


Just a short little reminder about the insurance file..

We don't know what's in it. There are people all over the world downloading it, and archiving the contents to their computers. We don't know the origins of Wikileaks, nor do we know why they are putting such a controversial file up for download. I am all about truth, believe me.

I just think it's a bad idea to download a file onto your computer, that could contain secretive spyware, alternative motives, or any extreme sinister results. We don't know whats in it, I suggest keeping it clean. I download lots of things, but this just seems like a bad idea to me.

Seems like an all too perfect way to get some software onto the majority of the computers in America.

But, if you do download, make sure you run some sort of IP protection software. GO and use PeerBlock before torrenting anything, and make sure the up-loader is reliable.

Maybe I am just paranoid, but I don't want to trust an organization that poses their 'top secret headquarters' for photo shoots. Or their founder.

I'm glad to see this brought up. There is another reason why people may want to be real careful about handling either of these files and where they are stored.

After things like Stuxnet, does anyone doubt the Government(s) with a lot to explain from that insurance file couldn't float something across the net? It could just sit there doing absolutely nothing to be noticed by an anti-virus program or any other scanner until it detects that specific file and something specific happening with it. Like....being successfully opened. There is an old Laptop in the closet from Win 98 days that I managed to get XP functioning on. That is the only machine I'll use to play with this file, personally.

Like others have mentioned, we really don't know what is in that thing and the more time I've thought about it, the less likely it would only be State Dept cables. That is pretty crappy insurance when they were already sent to media operations which may as well have a U.S. Government liaison office right in their buildings.

reply to post by ecoparity


Spot on.

On could even take it further as I do. I dual boot into Linux on a separate drive with the Windows drives unmounted and locked to the root account. I download and open the questionable file from Linux.

It is free, and with the distro's available today, it is not any harder than installing windows. There are a couple of free BCD editors, that make adding entries into the Windows BCD really easy. Not to say that grub is not a good boot loader, it is just that I want my Windows drives to be completely unmountable to a normal Linux user account.

Also for privacy, nothing beats TOR for a free solution. There is a complete package installation with a Firefox browser all preconfigured so if one is not familiar with setting up proxies and the other couple of software packages needed for setting up TOR manually, you have a package that is as easy as starting your browser. This is available for both Windows and Linux. Be forewarned, however, that TOR is extremely slow for the most part, but hey its free.

I just think it's a bad idea to download a file onto your computer, that could contain secretive spyware, alternative motives, or any extreme sinister results. We don't know whats in it, I suggest keeping it clean. I download lots of things, but this just seems like a bad idea to me.

Yes you are being paranoid.

The insurance file is simply garbage data. That is until you decrypt it with a program such as openssl (en.wikipedia.org...). Once you supply a correct password it can be decrypted to whatever it contains.

Obviously if the decryption key is released, and the archive contained binaries for your operating system (.exe files for windows as an example) it would be stupid to run them without thinking. Though i really think wikileaks wouldn't do that... whatever it contains i am sure they want everyone who has downloaded it to be able to view it on any computer regardless of the operating system... i would assume plaintext data or possibly even a video.

The only thing i can confirm myself as to what the file is encrypted with, is the AES-256 cipher (hence the name, also a giveaway). en.wikipedia.org...

An encrypted file is harmless. Downloading a file does not put a computer at risk, until you run it. You really can't just "run" an encrypted file.

OP, I agree with you. I wouldn't download that file. Maybe I'm paranoid or maybe I'm just listening to my gut. Wikileaks ain't be downloaded on my computer.

You know, I just don't think Wikileaks is for the people. If the U.S government didn't want people going around, and sharing their top secret files, I don't think they would allow it. I think they are the most capable government on Earth, and if they didn't want the by product of this frenzy to come about, they would stop it.

They can stop it so easily. It's stupid. I think it's most likely a CIA Psy Op.

Hahah and yeah, they probably wouldn't get files on most the computers in America. Not direct downloads. Unless they have hidden drive jumping code somewhere. I don't know, I don't have much knowledge on coding spyware.

-Will

Originally posted by AzureSky
Nothing happened with the last insurance file.
Also, we know why wikileaks is here, to bring us the truth that the governments will not give us on their own free will.
If it was the government at work, why do they have their panties in a bunch about what wikileaks releases.

I think its one of the last avenues of truth on the internet now a days. Cant trust anything really, but really. why would they want to get random people downloading a random file? =P

As far as you know nothing happened. It would be stupid for the government to not put some tracking cookies in it.

Originally posted by WillNiendick


Just a short little reminder about the insurance file..

We don't know what's in it. There are people all over the world downloading it, and archiving the contents to their computers. We don't know the origins of Wikileaks, nor do we know why they are putting such a controversial file up for download. I am all about truth, believe me.

I just think it's a bad idea to download a file onto your computer, that could contain secretive spyware, alternative motives, or any extreme sinister results. We don't know whats in it, I suggest keeping it clean. I download lots of things, but this just seems like a bad idea to me.

Seems like an all too perfect way to get some software onto the majority of the computers in America.

But, if you do download, make sure you run some sort of IP protection software. GO and use PeerBlock before torrenting anything, and make sure the up-loader is reliable.

Maybe I am just paranoid, but I don't want to trust an organization that poses their 'top secret headquarters' for photo shoots. Or their founder.

I think it's always wise to be very careful about what we download.

However, I just want to clarify that the insurance file has not been opened. It's still encrypted.

The recent download which wikileaks is putting out is the one already released through the Guardian guy releasing the code. They have decided to make it available to the public because it is no longer secret anyway.

This is different from the insurance file.

You can confirm this information on the wikileaks twitter account - and you don't have to be a member of twitter to read it. Just google twitter wikileaks.

Wonder if say an alphabet agency could construct a net to grab all isp addressess that enter a third party site then track all of these in real time,thats a risk Im not interested in finding out.

Good job making people aware OP.

I'm not trying to say it's a BotNet but if they really wanted to, those files would be excellent to make a strong one. Also one of the reasons that I didn't download it. (I have been packet-ed before and it's annoying to deal with X_X)

@ releasing another insurance file after the original was so long ago.

Am I reading the wiki saga properly? Wasn't the idea to drop a key to decrypt the first one... Why would someone release a second one unless they aren't the same...

Originally posted by Skewed
reply to post by WillNiendick

 

As opposed to even the stuff the ad banners install on your computer, even from this site?

I do not see much difference.

It's not just the ad banners on ATS that drop things on your computer, watch all of the activity in the status bar of your browser when you move around here and you'll see what I mean. Catch the site/company names and look them up.

Here is just one they use......as do many sites that want to gather extensive market research on their users/visitors.

www.scorecardresearch.com...

reply to post by WillNiendick

If it's too good to be true, then it normally is, wikileaks is nothing more than MOSSAD'S trojan horse.

reply to post by WillNiendick


If you don't interact with the file, aka execute it, then there is no issue. Most viruses and worms are the result of human error. the users ends up executing a command/program on their computer that they shouldn't have.

That being said, having an encrypted zip file will not infect your computer. It would have to be executable (.exe) to be a problem and it would require user input. Furthermore, an AES 256 compressed file that you don't know the password for is useless (it is military grade encryption....don't expect to crack it in your lifetime). Yeah, there could be viruses in it, but you don't know the password, so it doesn't matter.