On 23 June 2015, WikiLeaks published documents under the name of "Espionnage Élysée", which showed that NSA spied on the French government, including but not limited to then President Francois Hollande and his predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac.[293] On 29 June 2015, WikiLeaks published more NSA top secrets intercepts regarding France, detailing an economic espionage against French companies and associations.[294] In July 2015, WikiLeaks published documents which showed that the NSA had tapped the telephones of many German federal ministries, including that of the Chancellor Angela Merkel, for years since the 1990s.[295] On 4 July 2015, WikiLeaks published documents which showed that 29 Brazilian government numbers were selected for secret espionage by the NSA. Among the targets were then-President Dilma Rousseff, many assistants and advisors, her presidential jet and other key figures in the Brazilian government.[296]
On 29 July 2015, WikiLeaks published a top secret letter from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) Ministerial Meeting in December 2013 which illustrated the position of negotiating countries on "state-owned enterprises" (SOEs).[297] On 31 July 2015, WikiLeaks published secret intercepts and the related target list showing that the NSA spied on the Japanese government, including the Cabinet and Japanese companies such as Mitsubishi and Mitsui. The documents revealed that United States espionage against Japan concerned broad sections of communications about the US-Japan diplomatic relationship and Japan's position on climate change issues, other than an extensive monitoring of the Japanese economy.[298] On 21 October 2015 WikiLeaks published some of John O. Brennan's emails, including a draft security clearance application which contained personal information.[299]
BitTorrent Sites Hacked By Secret Government Unit
WikiLeaks won The Economist's New Media Award in 2008 at the Index on Censorship Awards[402] and Amnesty International's UK Media Award in 2009.[403][404] In 2010, the New York Daily News listed WikiLeaks first among websites "that could totally change the news".[405] Julian Assange received the 2010 Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence for releasing secret U.S. military reports on the Iraq and Afghan wars[406] and was named the Readers' Choice for TIME's Person of the Year in 2010.[407] The UK Information Commissioner has stated that "WikiLeaks is part of the phenomenon of the online, empowered citizen".[408] In 2010, an Internet petition in support of WikiLeaks attracted more than six hundred thousand signatures.[409]
Having released information that exposed the inner workings of a broad range of organisations and politicians, WikiLeaks started by 2016 to focus almost exclusively on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.[425] In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, WikiLeaks only exposed material damaging to the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton. WikiLeaks even rejected the opportunity to publish unrelated leaks, because it dedicated all its resources to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. According to The New York Times, WikiLeaks timed one of its large leaks so that it would happen on the eve of the Democratic Convention.[426] The Washington Post noted that the leaks came at an important sensitive moment in the Clinton campaign, as she was preparing to announce her vice-presidential pick and unite the party behind her.[427] The Sunlight Foundation, an organisation that advocates for open government, said that such actions meant that WikiLeaks was no longer striving to be transparent but rather sought to achieve political goals.[428]
In August 2016, after WikiLeaks published thousands of DNC emails, DNC officials and a number of cybersecurity experts and cybersecurity firms claimed that Russian intelligence had hacked the e-mails and leaked them to WikiLeaks.[447][448] Assange said that Russia was not the source of the documents and that the Clinton campaign was stoking "a neo-McCarthy hysteria".[449] In October 2016, the US intelligence community said that it was "confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations".[450] The US intelligence agencies said that the hacks were consistent with the methods of Russian-directed efforts, and that people high up within the Kremlin were likely involved.[450] On 14 October 2016, CNN stated that "there is mounting evidence that the Russian government is supplying WikiLeaks with hacked emails pertaining to the U.S. presidential election."[451]
In September 2018, The Guardian reported that Russian diplomats had secret talks with people close to Julian Assange in 2017 with plans to help him flee the UK Several possible destinations were suggested, including Russia. The Russian embassy denied the report.[467] It was also reported that Ecuador attempted to give Assange a diplomatic posting in Russia, but Britain refused to give him diplomatic immunity to leave the embassy.[468] In October 2018, this was confirmed by documents released by Ecuador.[469]
When asked to join their initial advisory board, Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists declined and told TIME that "they have a very idealistic view of the nature of leaking and its impact. They seem to think that most leakers are crusading do-gooders who are single-handedly battling one evil empire or another."[505] Aftergood has opined that WikiLeaks "does not respect the rule of law nor does it honor the rights of individuals." Aftergood went on to state that WikiLeaks engages in unrestrained disclosure of non-governmental secrets without compelling public policy reasons and that many anti-corruption activists were opposed to the site's activities.[506]
Another important project on the list is Nautilus-S, which was aimed at de-anonymizing users on the Tor network through exit nodes controlled by the Russian government. The project was apparently developed in 2012 and also involved replacing visited websites with specially created sites.
Attack vectors: APT4 actors often leverage spear phishing messages using U.S. government, Department of Defense, or defense industrial base themes. APT4 actors may repurpose valid content from government or U.S. DoD web sites within their message bodies to lend them legitimacy.
Of the two cyber actors within the FSB, the 16th Center (dubbed Berzerk Bear, Dragonfly, and Energetic Bear by Western cyber researchers) emerged as a primary cyber offensive unit. In 2021, US authorities accused three officers of the 16th Center of sending fake e-mails with infected attachments to energy, including nuclear, companies in the United States between 2012 and 2017. According to the indictment, the three officers used spearphishing attacks that targeted more than 3,300 users at more than 500 US and international companies. They also targeted US government agencies such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 27
The government does not systematically block or filter websites and other forms of online content, although a few independent websites and other sites are blocked. Authorities have previously blocked social media and communications platforms.
Some government regulations threaten the economic viability of online publishers and start-up platforms.1 In late 2019, the government issued new guidelines for media accreditation that include websites and online journalists covering news and current events.2 Beginning in 2020, a special committee appointed by the director general of government information would issue media cards, and websites were required to register with the Mass Media Ministry.3 Websites that have not registered do not receive media accreditation, which restricts them from covering certain events and hinders their field reporting. The purported purpose of the guidelines is to ensure better media practices.
Individuals faced detention for commenting on politicians or government affairs online during the coverage period. In June 2021, an individual was arrested without a warrant under Section 120 of the penal code and Computer Crime Act for sharing satirical posts about several politicians, including one accusing two state officials of bribing a Muslim to break two Buddhist statues.10 The same day, the head of the Information Technology Society of Sri Lanka (ITSSL), Rajeev Yasiru Kuruwitage Mathew, was arrested without a warrant under the Computer Crime Act for spreading false information about a cyberattack on several government websites. He was remanded for two days before being released on bail.11
News sites are required to register under a procedure that lacks a legal foundation, according to critics (see B6). The registration form issued by the Mass Media Ministry requires owners, administrators, and editors to enter their personal details, including addresses, along with the domain name, and internet protocol (IP) address of the website, with applications reviewed by a panel appointed by the ministry secretary.7 The form does not refer to a law or indicate the penalty for noncompliance. Civil society groups fear the requirement could be used to hold registered site owners responsible for content posted by users or to prevent government critics from writing anonymously.8
Government and business websites are vulnerable to hacking and other cyberattacks. While the problem is not historically widespread in Sri Lanka, notable attacks on government websites and other websites were recorded during the coverage period. Cyberattacks occasionally targeted government critics, such as the TamilNet news site, under former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.1
Hackers frequently attack government and business websites, and in 2016 one technology company placed Sri Lanka among the top 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region facing increased threats to cybersecurity.12 In May 2019, several local websites, such as that of the Kuwaiti embassy in Colombo, were defaced by unknown hackers.13 2ff7e9595c
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