Assange's 'poison pill' file impossible to stop, expert says

Source: CNN

Whatever you call the file Julian Assange has threatened to release if he's imprisoned or dies or WikiLeaks is destroyed, it's impossible to stop.

"It's all tech talk to say, 'I have in my hand a button and if I press it or I order my friends to press it, it will go off,'" said Hemu Nigam, who has worked in computer security for more than two decades, in the government and private sector.

"Julian is saying, 'I've calibrated this so that no matter how many ways you try, you're never going to be able to deactivate it,'" Nigam said. "He's sending a call to action to hackers to try it. To the government, he's also saying, 'Try me.'"

There's a reason Assange specifically announced -- on the Web -- that there is a 256-key encryption code that only a few trusted associates know that will unleash the contents of the 1.4 gigabyte-size file.

"He's saying don't even bother trying. It will take you so long to succeed that by that time, it will be too late," Nigam said. "Most of the time, you see a 56-key encryption. That's considered secure. When you are using 256, you are sending a message: 'I'm smart enough to know that you will try to get in.'"



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/08/wikileaks.poison.pill/?hpt=T2

Nah,our government wouldn't do that, now would they? :)

Or was it a mushroom cloud? I forget...

All that would do is give them foreknowledge as to what's in the file. It wouldn't stop anything.

If his associates release the key, the 100,000 or so who've downloaded the file will decrypt it and the contents will be revealed to the world.

rendition you -- sometimes via SWEDEN -- to our "frenemies" for torture.

or suicided you.

That is how smart he is. I could be wrong. But torture is probably a contingency he thougth of.

much needed for the humanity, anyway.

I want to see just how deep the rabbit hole goes...

I don't think any order from Assange is required to let loose the poison pill. His disappearance or becoming incapacitated would be sufficient.

... for all of the wall street, banking, military and financial banking servers, hot sites and data centers around the world. That would be my guess ....

to figure out who those "associates" are, and to quietly "disappear" them. I hope they have some way of knowing if anything happens to the others so the last (or better yet, 2nd to last) man standing can say FU, and do the release before it is too late. I suspect right now, their lives are even more immediately threatened than Julian's. We already know what the CIA is willing to do to get secrets, and we already know that it will not be prosecuted for doing so. And it appears they would likely have the president's approval.

which will release it if it stops receiving the signal not to release it. Actually there are probably a number of such mechanisms.

would have properly prepared for just about any possibility. The groups his has and potentially may piss off play to win at any cost.

Aren't we entitled to know?

but it's more effective if it's released in managable bits over time. This would be a big dump of ALL of it (if I'm reading this right). Basically, TMI for easy assimilation.

I'm ready for the releases about the capitalists to come out. Enough of this government stuff. Let's get to the dirt on the REAL rulers!

No... even Assange decides that certain things should not be released, he claims to be releasing things responsibly. But if something happens to him... all bets are off.

The high grade encryption just makes sure it is not used prematurely, and it's contents remain unknown.

The Tea Party, KKK, militias and so many other hate groups have been yelling that the downfall of the US is imminent. They have yet to get over a black man in the White House.

Now I am afraid there is less and less hope for what I stand for to survive my lifetime. We need to start another 'clock.' The Doomsday one is cool and grabs attention when its timer is moved.

What should we call the new clock? How about;

Police State;
1984;
The Crazy Time;
Interesting Times;

has been said to be roughly equivalent to building a dyson ring - it's a few years off. if the xxx (insert initials here) claims to have done it they are a) lying, or b) complicit.

Hemu Nigam sounds like a moron who is eager to spout sensationalist nonsense in order to get his name in the news. No one uses 56-bit keys anymore unless they're using some type of legacy DES implementation.

Viva Julian!

Wikileaks has released some amazing stuff, there is no doubt - but from all I have seen nothing much more than could not, nor was, assumed & suspected by any intelligent observer of the political world. Nothing as of yet that would shake the foundations of the corrupt governments. Make them nervous - very uncomfortable - yes. However Joe & Suzi are still snoozing away.

It is my hope that the level of release has been purposefully tempered to create a general awayness and slight unease within the Joe-Six-Pack/Suzi-Soccer-Mom crowd. I would hope the shadow is about to be explode - to paraphrase a famous author.

I await that explosion.